A Real Family At Last?
by Dragonanzar
Summary: Severus Snape is sent to check on harry during the summer. Though the Dursleys appear to be a happy and loving family, something seems wrong. AU but follows the events in the book during the school years up to the end of fifth year. Please R&R! NO SLASH.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N The major mistakes have now been edited as of 31****st**** of August 2010. If you have already read this story and have received notification of a new chapter, sorry, it's just the editing process. **

"Harry, are you alright?" Hermione asked anxiously. The trio were sitting on the Hogwarts express. It was the end of fifth year, and Harry's friends were worried about him. They knew that the Dursleys didn't treat Harry right, but they didn't know to what extent the muggles would go. Ron knew that Harry was being plagued by nightmares; after the events in the ministry, who wouldn't? But they couldn't do anything.

"My mum has asked Dumbledore to let you come over during the summer Harry." Ron said. "We wanted you at the beginning, but Dumbledore said no. I'll send you a letter when he says that you can visit."

Harry nodded. He had his face pressed up against the cold window. He couldn't bring up any anticipation for the visit. His mind was too filled with despair. Sirius's death was still haunting him, and the prospect of the coming summer didn't help relieve his depression. His friends realised that he didn't really want to chat, so they left him alone for the duration of the voyage.

The train shuddered to a halt at platform nine and three quarters. Harry was still looking out of the window, so immediately saw Uncle Vernon waiting for him. He got off the train with his luggage as quickly as possible; no need to raise Vernon's ire by dawdling. After saying good bye to his friends, he approached Vernon warily. His uncle grunted at him before ordering,

"Put that stuff in the boot Potter. Hurry up. I've got other things to do than just ferrying you to a freak school's train." Harry tried, but the trunk was slightly too heavy for him. "And don't scratch the paintwork, or it'll be the worse for you." Vernon's voice was projected out of the front door. Harry managed to get the trunk in just before Vernon came up behind him. He was just turning around when his uncle started screeching.

"Look at what you've done to my beautiful car!" he pointed at an almost non existent fleck on the bumper. Harry was sure that it hadn't been done by him, but he knew better than to protest. Vernon grabbed Harry's shoulder, darting his eyes around the crowded station and bringing his face close to Harry's. "Wait until we're back home Potter. You'll wish you'd never been born by the time I'm finished with you." He tightened his grip until Harry winced, and then shoved him towards the back seat of the car. Harry opened the door with a wishful glance towards the congregating families in the station. Before his uncle could shout at him, however, he got in and shut himself into the car.

Severus Snape had taken the Hogwarts express to do an errand for the headmaster. In truth, he could have apparated or taken the floo, but he told himself that he wanted to see the students safe off the train. After all, the news from the ministry confirming the return of the dark lord was likely to have impacted many. Really, however, he wanted to see how Potter was coping with the death of that mutt. He had noticed the rings around the boy's eyes, and the pinched look at breakfast. Obviously the child hadn't been sleeping lately.

Snape disembarked and stood surveying the chaos. He caught sight of the boy-who-lived heading towards a fat, red faced man. He watched as Harry tried to lift the trunk into the boot, snorting softly to himself. The saviour of the world probably had too much pride to ask anyone's assistance. However, a bemused expression crept on his face as he watched Vernon shouting at Potter, and Potter just taking it. He would have expected the arrogant brat to have some cheeky comeback ready to throw in his guardian's face. Even stranger was when Potter winced at the grip on his arm, but made no effort to defend himself. Snape continued watching until the car drove away.

**Two weeks later.**

The floo roared in the fireplace, and Albus Dumbledore stepped out gracefully into the dungeons. Serverus Snape looked up from the pile of papers he was filling out.

"Albus, you could have just called." He said reprovingly.

"Think nothing of it Severus. I'm just popping by. How are you doing?"

"The ministry gives me a pile of paperwork, just so that I can relate what the dunderheads in my class spend their lessons on. I'm about halfway." He stretched.

"That reminds me. Could you go and check on Harry Potter sometime this week please." Snape groaned.

"Can't someone else go to check on Harry bloody Potter?"

"No. The rest of the order are busy."

"Busy? Well so am I. I've got the rest of this paperwork to do, then there's the potions you want made, all on top of the spying. Besides, you've never checked on him before. Why now?"

"It'll only take a couple of hours. The reason I want you to visit now, is because he's had a recent bereavement. I don't think that the muggles will be giving him the support he needs." Snape interrupted.

"What? You think that he needs a bit more coddling than normal do you. You spoil that boy Albus."

"Yes Severus. I _have_ heard you express that opinion before. I just want you to go to Privet Drive and have a little talk with Harry's family. If possible, it would be nice if you talked to Harry, but since you can't even look at him without sneering, I doubt that would help him." Indeed, Snape was sneering at that moment. He studied Albus' face, but saw nothing but anxiety for Harry.

"I hope that this isn't another attempt to try to get Potter and me to get along, is it?"

"No Severus. After the fiasco that was the occlumency lessons last year, I have given up on that plan." Snape looked at him again. As far as he could tell, Albus was telling the truth, but then, the wily wizard had many years experience in hiding his emotions.

"Fine. I'll talk to the Dursleys, but don't expect me to talk to Potter."

"Thank you. I'm off to the ministry now. They're still having problems with the security of the school. They seem to think that I can't keep the school safe." Dumbledore's voice ended on a note of incredulity that any ministry official could even think of that possibility. Snape snorted as Dumbledore stood up and went over to the fireplace. He took a handful of green powder, tossed it into the fire, and flooed away.

Snape went back to his forms, but the image of Potter kept popping into his head. He cursed under his breath. The damn boy could infuriate him without even being around. _How could Albus ask me to go to check on Potter? He know how much I loathe the boy._ He got up and drank a fingers worth of fire whiskey. The taste distracted him from his thoughts. He sat back down to finish his job. Harry bloody Potter could wait a couple of days.

Harry Potter sat back on his heels, stretching his back, wincing when the move stretched the half healed scabs.

"Boy are you done yet?" he flinched at the sound of his aunt's voice. He had just finished dusting the dining room.

"Yes Aunt Petunia." He replied tiredly. He was near exhaustion, and it wasn't even halfway through the day yet.

"Good, because I want you to go and mow the lawn before cleaning the kitchen."

She turned away into the lounge. Harry scrambled to his feet, swaying from hunger and exhaustion. He went outside and winced again as the sun burnt through his thin t-shirt, onto his damaged back. He unlocked the shed door, and dragged out the heavy mower. After pushing it up and down the lawn a few times, he was overcome by a fit of dizziness. Only his tight grip on the machine handle, stopped him falling as he swayed. When the fit had passed, he immediately set to work again. It wouldn't do to let Petunia see him slacking. She would probably tell Vernon, and then he'd be in deep trouble.

He finished the lawn as fast as possible, then put the mower neatly away, and reported to the kitchen. He was given the job of cleaning the floor, along with a comment from Petunia, 'and I want it spotless, do you hear? Else I'll tell your uncle.' Harry hated cleaning the floor. The cleaning fluid got in his lungs and stung his skin, the position killed his back and knees, and the job he did was never up to the standard, Petunia expected. Sure enough, when he had finished and was dragging himself to his feet, Petunia came in and started pointing out non existent patches of dirt. Thankfully, Petunia let him off with only a slap and an order to tidy the bedrooms.

Harry did his best in the rest of his chores, despite the growing ache in his body. After five, he heard his uncle's car park in the drive. It wasn't long before he heard the expected -but dreaded- shout of, 'boy!' coming from the living room. He wearily walked down the stairs to stand before his guardian.

"Petunia tells me you shirked in one of your chores today. You know what that would usually mean don't you." It wasn't a question. Vernon tapped his belt significantly. Harry's heart came up into his mouth. Surely it was too soon. The last time had only been a couple of days ago. "But you're lucky tonight. I'm in a good mood, so no food tonight or tomorrow, and extra chores to make up for it." Harry's heart sank. He had barely managed to finish the work today with food last night. How was he going to get through tomorrow and the next day? He made sure not to show these thoughts on his face though. "Now, I suggest that you go and cook the dinner like a good freak." Harry trudged into the kitchen, trying not to show his despair.

Snape strode up Privet drive. He regarded the Muggle houses scornfully. They didn't seem to have any imagination; all the houses were the same, even the cars were similar styles and colours. He strode up to the door of number 4, and knocked on the door. He heard a shout of 'boy' from inside the house. The door was opened soon after by Harry himself.

Harry looked at his most hated professor in shock. After a couple of moments, Snape snidely asked him,

"Well Potter, are you going to stand there gawping like a goldfish, or are you going to ask me in?" the boy flushed, and closed his mouth. Snape heard heavy footsteps, and he saw Uncle Vernon come around the corner from the sitting room.

"What's the hold up boy? Who is it?" Vernon asked. Harry stepped back from the doorway. The men looked at each other for a moment. "Who the devil are you?" demanded Harry's uncle.

"My name is professor Snape. I am from Hogwarts." Vernon started at the name of the school, his eyes darting round to check that no one had heard. "I am here to check on Potter." Vernon's attitude changed instantly to one of benevolence.

"You are, are you? Well come in for some tea then. You can see that dear old Harry is very happy here." He clapped his hand on Harry's shoulder. Harry winced. The 'pat' was harder than it looked. Vernon gestured to the living room. Snape swept into the room, ahead of the other two. Vernon's hand tightened on Harry's shoulder until it was painful, and the man breathed into his ear. "Not one word Potter, or else. We're going to play happy families, and you're going to act along if you want to survive the rest of this summer. You hear me?" Vernon shook the boy until he nodded. They proceeded into the living room to join their guest and the rest of the family, Harry trying to keep his emotions hidden behind a blank face.


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N Thanks so much all of you who put me on one of your lists! I was so happy when I saw the number of emails in my inbox. Thanks especially to the five who reviewed. I'm so glad you like it. Anyway, here's the chapter._

Disclaimer: Yes, my name is JKRowling and I am rolling in money. That's why I'm living out the fantasies I couldn't put in the books on this non-profit site. And my nose has just grown. This disclaimer will have to stand for the rest of the story because I can't be bothered to think up other ways of saying it.

"Mr Snape was it? Would you like a cup of tea?" Petunia asked, ushering Snape into a comfy arm chair.

"Professor, and yes please." Snape replied, making himself comfortable. Harry and Vernon entered the room. Snape noticed the boy's attempt at an emotionless expression. It had worked quite well, but as a practiced spy, he was better than most people at detecting untruths. No doubt the brat was trying to conceal an expression of distaste that he, a lowly potions professor, had dared to enter the sacred hallows of his home.

He was disrupted from these musings by Petunia handing him a cup of tea, and Vernon asking,

"So Professor, what brings you here? We have already had a visit from your lot. I hope the Fr-Harry has been sending letters regularly!" his voice contained some concealed menace that seemed to be directed at Harry. Snape watched closely as Harry jerked ever so slightly. He toyed with the handle of his cup for a few moments before replying, enjoying Harry's increasing discomfort.

"Yes he has. I was sent by the headmaster to check on Potter's mental state. Apparently Dumbledore believes that the death of his godfather might have made him lose what little sanity he has left." He smirked as Harry flushed. Vernon however, started slightly.

"You mean his godfather's dead?" Snape rolled his eyes. Obviously, Potter's pride had kept him from mentioning that small fact. Of course the Dursley's wouldn't be the place for him to get over the death, if he never mentioned it in the first place!

"Indeed he is." Petunia and Vernon exchanged gleeful looks before sobering.

"We are very sad to hear that. Harry didn't mention it." Snape had seen the looks, but was puzzled as to their meaning. There was another matter he had wished to make clear.

"Whenever Potter comes back to school, he says that you don't allow him to do his homework as an excuse for poor to awful assignments. Is this true?" Vernon and Petunia exchanged another glance.

"No. that's a lie. We always allow him plenty of time to do such things during the holidays." Snape smirked again.

"I thought it might be that. So Potter, your great excuse is void. It is, as I always expected, another plea for sympathy." He said snidely. "I expect your assignments to be handed in without any such excuses next term. Understand me Potter?" Harry didn't reply until Vernon elbowed him sharply.

"Yes sir." He muttered to the floor. Snape was surprised by the tone of defeat in his voice.

"Now Professor Snape, would you like to stay for dinner?" Vernon asked, heaving himself to his feet. Snape politely declined the offer.

"I believe that I have seen all that I need to. Thank you for your hospitality. I think that there will be no need for further interference." He also stood, inclined his head to Petunia, and left, accompanied by Vernon. Harry sat still in the chair, ignored by everyone. He hadn't looked up once in the entire visit.

When Vernon came back into the room, he snapped at Harry,

"Get up boy." When he stood up slowly, standing before the beefy man with his shoulders slumped, Vernon just looked at him, before ordering him to the kitchen to prepare the supper.

Snape strode back down Privet drive. He was satisfied that all his assumptions about the boy had been proved correct. The brat was treated like a prince. He always took advantage of his teacher's sympathies to lie about not having time to do his homework. He was looking forward to seeing Albus' face when he was told about the brat's **real** home situation. There was nothing to be worried about, yet… there was that situation at the station a couple of weeks back. And his spy's senses had been tingling; sensing lies. It was also rather strange how Potter hadn't looked up, and had seemed rather frightened. He had known the child to stand up to Voldemort and his death eaters without betraying fear…. Odd that he seemed to be afraid of a mere muggle…. He dismissed the thoughts. No doubt he had done something which had caused Dursley to be angry at the station, or something. The tingling senses were probably the product of being in potter's company, and the other odd things were likely his imagination. There was no way that he was worried about Potter. No. He was just imagining these things.

He shoved the errant thoughts to the back of his mind, and apparated as soon as he was out of sight of the houses. Even though he filled his mind with papers and potions, he couldn't stop a niggling annoyance at the back of his brain that something **wasn't right** about that household.

Back at Hogwarts, Snape went straight to the headmaster's office. He spoke the ridiculous password –candied chestnuts- and waited impatiently for the stairs to take him up to the office.

When he opened the door, Dumbledore was sitting behind his desk, his blue eyes twinkling.

"Severus. I suppose that you are on your way back from Harry?" Snape nodded stiffly. "And what did you find?"

"A Potter with loving guardians. I don't understand the concern Albus. I went in, had tea and a little chat with the Dursley, then went out. They were perfectly polite, and seemed to care about the boy."

"But will they be the right people to care for Harry at this delicate time?"

"Honestly, he hadn't even told them that Black was dead. How could anyone help him? I think that it hasn't been the Dursley fault at his attitude, Potter brings these things upon himself."

"Perhaps Serverus, but one can never be sure."

"Maybe not, but one thing that is, if I don't get back to my potions, they will be completely ruined, so I bid you good day Albus."

The Headmaster nodded as his potions master swept out the door. He had known the man long enough to be sure that something was eating at his peace of mind. His shrewd mind was turning over possibilities of what had happened at the Dursley home that evening. Mentally shrugging, he turned his mind to other matters. No doubt everything would come clear sooner or later. Also, Serverus Snape wasn't the kind of man to reveal anything he didn't want to.

_A/N So, what did you think? By the way, if you read this chapter before I changed it, sorry. I was in a hurry to upload, and I forgot to put in the authors notes_


	3. Chapter 3

A/N

_A/N. Well, here's another update just for you. I will try to update fairly regularly this and next week, but I can't promise anything! It depends on how much my parents want to use the computer. If Vernon seemed a little ooc last chapter, sorry. I just can't believe that anyone could be stupid enough to anger witches or wizards by mistreating Harry in public. In private is another matter. Anyway, I'll stop talking, and get on with the story. This disclaimer is for the rest of the story._

Disclaimer: not mine. I just like to play in J.'s universe sometimes.

The Dursleys were eating the supper Harry had just prepared. He was sitting on his bed, staring at the ceiling. He hoped that he would be allowed to eat tonight, but wasn't holding his breath. Due to the appearance of snape, Vernon was in quite a bad mood. He seemed to think that Harry had some how told his 'freaky friends' something. _Though how he thought I did it, I don't know. He's been reading all the letters I have sent._ Besides, why **did** snape come? It was surely not out of any thorght of Harry's well being. Maybe it was dumbledore's concern like the man said.

Harry was startled out of this contemplative state by vernons cry of,

"boy!" he shot up and dashed downstairs. It wouldn't do for his uncle to have to call again. When he got to the bottom of the stairs, the fat man was waiting for him. He jerked his head at the kitchen. "go clear up. There's a bit left for you." He ordered. Harry lost no time in obeying. He almost couldn't believe that his family would feed him after that afternoon. Maybe it was because he had done as ordered before; he hadn't said anything he shouldn't have to snape.

He quickly ate the cold leftovers, then washed up. By the time Vernon had come back into the room, he had wiped down the surfaces, dried up, and was in the procces of tidying away the dry dishes. Vernon looked around the room, then, unable to complain, told Harry to go to bed. Harry did so, not caring at the early hour. He knew that this good luck couldn't last, so was determined to make the most of it while it did.

Harry woke to the thundering of Dudley's footsteps and his whining voice.

"but mum, I want to go with Piers to the cinema!"

"I'm sorry diddy, Piers' mother says that he's sick. Why don't you watch a film on the tv? Or you could play a game." Harry heard the footsteps fading along with Dudley's grumbling. His aunt made her appearance at the door, snapping at him to get up and stop lazing.

He didn't have to get changed; he didn't have any night clothes to get changed into. He dashed to the bathroom before presenting himself downstairs.

"what took you so long?" Petunia demanded. Harry had taken less than three minutes to get down. Ten times as less time than her son took. He kept these thoughts to himself however. "I want you to prune the hedge neatly. Make sure you clean up well afterwards." She turned her back, and he was dismissed.

He went out into the shed to get the shears. When he opened the door though, he only found empty space. He was puzzled, until he saw all the equipment strewn over the lawn. He groaned internally. No doubt Dudley had thought that it would be a good joke to make him do **more** work. He tried to gather up the equipment as quickly as possible. It was a no win situation either way. Petunia wold think that he had done it if he just left them where they lay, but if he spent all his time putting them away, he would risk not having finished the hedge by the time she came back out. He kept the shears out, and twenty minutes after he had been assigned the job, actually started it.

Thankfully, Petunia didn't come out until he had finished. He sighed and put the shears back in the shed. When he turned around, Dudley was standing in the doorway leading onto the patio. He ignored his bloated cousin. No good ever came of picking a fight with Dudley, especially not now the sixteen year old had been having boxing lessons. It didn't mean that Dudley didn't want a fight with Harry though.

Dudley walked up to Harry who turned and backed away.

"where're you going Potter? You scared?" antagonised Dudley

"no." Harry replied

"wrong answer freak." At that, Dudley jumped on him.

The two ton weight of his cousin knocked Harry over. He twisted his arm to break his fall, but the extra weight and the wrong angle, caused it to break upon impact. Harry sucked in a breath of pain as the break shot spines of agony up his arm. Dudley drew back his arm and punched Harry in the stomach.

"I bet it was something to do with you that Piers was too ill to come to the cinema today." Harry felt a wave of anger rise in him at the injustice of this statement. His aunt, uncle and cousin were always blaming everything on him. The anger filled him, then found it's way out through his obese cousin. The boy was lifted a metre into the air, then slammed against the side of the house.

Dudley was stunned for a moment, before crying

"mmuummmyyy!" Petunia rushed out, screaming in shock seeing Dudley slumped against the side of the house, with blood running down his head where it had hit the wall. Harry got up, hissing in pain as the movement jostled his arm. His stomach also made him want to vomit from the pain of Dudley's punch. Petunia snapped at him,

"don't just stand there idiot! Go call 999 for an ambulance!" Harry limped away as fast as he could. He was numb with horror at the magic that had poured out of his body. He picked up the phone and dialled the emergency number.

"emergency services. Which would you like?" a brisk, efficient voice said out of the speaker.

"ambulance please."

"where is the accident?"

"number 4 Privet drive."

"a paramedic will be with you shortly." The phone was put down. (_A/N sorry if that isn't really how emergency services are contacted. I have never needed to use 999.) _

Within a few minutes, a paramedic vehicle pulled up on the drive. Harry answered the door. Two men stood on the door step, dressed in the uniform of a medic. Harry led them out into the back yard. The medics rushed over to the prone form of Dudley. Petunia moved out of the way to let them through, but stayed nearby, wringing her hands. After a few moments however, the medics looked up with a smile.

"your son's alright. He's just got slight concussion. He should go to bed and have a rest. He will feel dizzy for a while, but shouldn't suffer any great discomfort. If he starts vomiting, or bleeding from any apertures, bring him to the hospital. If not, he must not do any physical exercise until this bump has gone." Petunia nodded. The paramedic looked over at Harry. "are you alright lad? Your arm's at a strange angle." Harry nodded, but the man wouldn't let him get away with that. He came over and gently touched the injured limb. Harry hissed in discomfort. The medic took out a syringe from his pocket. He injected it into Harry's shoulder. Harry immediately felt the pain in his arm go numb. The man could now touch his arm without causing him undue discomfort.

"your arm is broken. I'll need to set it. He walked over to the kit they had brought with them, took out a length of bandage and a splint, then fixed Harry's arm. The grating of the bone made Harry wince slightly, even though it didn't hurt. The medic was quick. Shortly after, Harry's arm was swathed in bandages and straight. "come to the hospital later, and get that arm propely done in plaster." Harry nodded, even though he knew that there would be no chance of the Dursleys taking him to a hospital.

He saw the paramedics out. As soon as he returned to the back yard, Petunia told him to help her take Dudley up to bed. He did so, using his good arm. Together, they half lifted a woozy Dudley into the house and up the stairs. By the time they had sat the boy on his bed, they were panting. Petunia fussed over her son, paying no attention to Harry who was hesitating in the doorway. Finally, after Dudley had his tv turned on at the channel he wanted, the remote near his arm, his pillows propping him up into a sitting position, and a selection of snacks were sitting on the bed beside him, did Petunia pay any attention to her nephew. She turned on him slowly.

"I don't want to hear it now. You can explain to your uncle when he comes home. Get out of my sight and finish your chores. I don't want to hear or see you!" Harry nodded, gulping at the thought of Vernon, and fled

The sound of a car door slamming had Harry flinching. He had been like that since five o'clock. He had finished all his chores in record time, so was now left with nothing to do but think about Vernon's rage. His arm was aching now the pain killer had worn off.

This time, the car had belonged to his uncle. The front door was unlocked and opened. Vernon shouted out to his wife and son. Harry heard Petunia's footsteps going downstairs, then a muffled discussion. Suddenly, thundering feet ran upstairs. Harry pressed himself slightly further into the wall in the corner, however Vernon was going to Dudley's room. All too soon, there was the cry of, 'boy!'

Harry dragged himself out of the room, his heart sinking further every step he took. His uncle's face was puce when he first saw Harry. He stood up, towering over the undersized boy.

"what happened this morning?" his voice scared Harry. Instead of the normal shouting, this scentance was said in a quiet but menaceing tone that snape would have been proud to call his own. Harry took an involuntary step backwards.

"I asked you a question freak!" said Vernon, in the same tone as before.

"I-I don't know."

"what happened Dudley?" asked dursley, turning back to his son.

"Potter did the 'm' word daddy."

"I thought so." Declared Vernon, taking a step towards Harry.

"wait! Uncle Vernon! It was an accident, I swear it was!"

"nothing's an accident where you're concerned freak." Replied Vernon as he took a grip on Harry's injured arm. He seemed to be pleased at the hiss of agony that escaped Harry. He started to drag the boy off to his room, closing Dudley's door after him. Harry tried to keep up with his uncle, so that the pain in his arm was less. He needn't have bothered. Once inside his room, his uncle shut the door and threw him on the bed. Harry cowered away as Vernon advanced on him, unbuckling his belt.

_A/N so that's chapter three. I'll try to get four up soon. Now, please hit that little button down there and send me a review!_


	4. Chapter 4

Severus Snape tossed and turned on his bed at Prince Manor. He suddenly sat up with a gasp, his dreams trickling away as he tried to recapture them, like him trying to hold them in a sieve. The only thing he could remember was Potter's eyes, Lily's eyes, pleading, unnamed terror and pain in their depths. He lay back down, but despite his greatest efforts to go back to sleep, all he could do was think about those eyes. He grumbled at the Potter brat that was now disturbing his sleep, despite being on the other side of the country. He decided to check on the boy again. He was sure that nothing was wrong. When he had gone before, he had been alright, a little thin perhaps, but that was probably from mourning that mangy mutt of a godfather. No that had just a bad dream. Still, the resolve to check on the brat settled his mind and allowed him to drift off.

Harry lay huddled on his bed, the pain from his new wounds feeling worse than the Cruciatus curse. The tears he had tried to hold back in front of Vernon came back with a vengeance. _I'm not going to survive the next 'lesson' _he thought desperately. _He'll kill me next time. I've got to get away._ He grabbed a blanket off the bed, took the pillowcase off the pillow and tiptoed down the stairs into the kitchen. He raided the fridge, grabbing anything in a container, regardless of the contents. He then let himself out of the house and ran down the street.

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Severus Snape arrived at Privet drive, for the second time in a week. He decided to wait a bit, see if Potter came out into the garden or the driveway, after all, two visits in one week would seem as though he cared. He disillusioned himself and sat on a bench nearby. He saw the whole family… but not Harry. He waited until the family had gone out, the two whales and the beanpole squashing into the car, before approaching the door. He alohamora'd the door and stepped inside.

The house was as silent as the grave. Severus started a methodical search of the house. By the time he had reached Harry's bedroom, he was puzzled. He hadn't seen any trace of Harry at all! He now saw the bare room with Hedwig's cage without the owl on the desk. This was the only sign that a wizard lived in the house at hadn't seen any pictures or belongings that indicated a fourth person in the house. Severus was disturbed; there was an atmosphere of terror and violent pain clounding the bedroom as well as the smell of blood. Severus hoped that Potter wasn't trying to alleviate the pain of his godfather's passing by engaging in self-harm. He shook his head, it wasn't his problem. Well, one thing was certain, Potter wasn't in that house. Perhaps he was staying with a friend. Yes, that would be it. He went outside and apparated back to Prince Manor.

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Harry ran along the country lanes he had reached when he had left little Whinging, until he was exhausted. He barely managed to pull himself into the ditch, out of the way of cars, before he slumped into a dreamless sleep.

He woke as the early morning sunshine shone into his sleeping place. He took out the food that he had slipped into his pillowcase the night before. As he saw inside the containers, he cursed himself. Due to the frantic mindset he had been in last night, he hadn't chosen any food that was suitable for where he was. Most of the containers were filled with meat juices, fat, margarine or other such bases. There was virtually nothing edible without a fire or a cooker. The only thing he could find to eat, was a margarine tub filled with rice. He ate half the amount, saving the rest for later. He was also angry at himself for not taking Hedwig with him. Now he had no way of contacting anybody. He started walking, in the direction of London, he hoped.

Several hours later, he was still walking. His broken arm and ribs shot spikes of pain through him adding to the aching of the new stripes on his back. He hadn't seen anyone or anything, and he still didn't know where he was going. He thought back to last night, and mentally slapped himself. How could he have left what was familiar and protected by the blood wards? Now he was in the middle of the country side without any such reassurances. He would be easy prey for any death eater that came along; he didn't even have his wand.

Evening fell early in the countryside. He continued walking even though he could hardly see the hand in front of his face; it was so dark. Suddenly, head lights cut the darkness with their intensity. He tried to look past them, to see the figure beyond, lifting his thumb in the universal hitchhikers sign.

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The man in the car was driving home from the pub. In all rights, he shouldn't be driving at all. His vision swam, the darkness not helping. He saw a shape in his headlights, his vision so blurred that he couldn't tell whether the shape was even alive, let alone what type. He also didn't know where it was, because sometimes it was on his left, other times on his right, and occasionally even in front of him. He decided to take a chance, and swerved right.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Harry watched as the car drew nearer, not slowing down one iota. He saw it swerving to and fro, and stepped back slightly. He had obviously not stepped back far enough, and stood frozen as the car headed directly at him.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The drunk felt the impact as his car hit the object. The thing had obviously been to the right. If he had been in a more sober state, he would have stopped to at least check that his car was alright, but in the state that he was in now, he couldn't care less. He just carried on his drive. The next morning, he would have no recollection of the incident and no evidence except a small dent in the bumper to show where he had hit a fellow human.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Harry was caught on the side of his body by the car and spun into the ditch. He felt his side and touched warm liquid spilling out of an injured side. By the difficulty he had in breathing, he guessed that the car had also caused some damage to his lung. As tunnel vision set in, he shouted in his mind at the unfairness. He had survived Voldemort and his death eaters many times, only to be killed by a Muggle car. Unconsciously, he sent a mental plea of help to any mind listening.

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Severus was sitting in his library reading when the plea came through. A feeling of pain, and helplessness filled him. He jerked up, the book falling off his lap, as he locked his mind on the strange one, before apparating. He saw the still figure of Harry Potter. At first he felt relief that the boy had been found, but that feeling was soon replaced by one of horror as he saw the spreading pool of blood.

_A/N I don't think I explain the reason for Severus receiving the message later in the story. My explaination is that the Occlumency lessons caused a weak link between the two of them. Nothing much, but enough for a message of such intense emotion to be sent and received._


	5. Chapter 5

_A/N Sorry about the long delay. First of all I was in France and managed to get half the chapter done, then when I returned to England, I didn't feel in the mood for writing this story. I ended up sitting at my computer, then not knowing what to write. The problem is, I know where I want to go, but not how to get there. I have a couple of stories that I have started in a note book, but I am debating with myself whether I want to write them up. Never mind. I'll update as soon as my mind gets into the mood for this story again._

Severus cursed as he saw the frighteningly still form of the boy-who-lived. He quickly ran a diagnostic spell over the body. He cursed again at the severity of the injuries shown. Potter had three broken ribs, a broken arm, a punctured lung, a gash along his unbroken arm, and assorted bruises and scrapes. He checked the pulse. The boy was still alive, but barely. Severus muttered a spell to gently immobilise and lift Potter. He then grabbed the prone boy and apparated to his home.

Prince Manor was a large imposing building with a huge acreage of land surrounding it. Severus whisked straight into his lab and placed Potter on the long table in the middle. The first thing to do was to stop the bleeding out of the gash. He smeared a paste on Harry's arm that clotted the blood almost immediately. Next, he charmed the rib bones to reassemble themselves and cast a binding charm to keep them in place. He cast a healing spell on the lung to make the muscle knit itself together. Potter's breathing immediately got easier, now that the air wasn't whistling through a hole every breath he took. Severus set the bone in Harry's arm straight, then fed a dose of skele-grow down Potter's throat, stroking it with his long white fingers to make sure the boy swallowed it.

He stood back and cast another diagnostic spell. He saw that all the major injuries were either healed or were healing, but it appeared that some older injuries had been hidden by the quantity of life threatening ones. With one flick of his wand, Potter was gently flipped over, with another flick; he was without a shirt. Severus's eyebrows rose as he saw Potter's back. It was criss-crossed with lines. Some of them were white scars; others were new scabs, only a day or two old. They had obviously been done with a belt or whip. The sight brought up painful memories of his own father.

He swallowed, the bile rising in his throat. Now, he looked at the son of his most hated enemy with new eyes. Perhaps the malnutrition he had always assumed was caused by Potter being a fussy eater or mourning, was actually because of abuse.

He levitated Potter up to a spare bedroom, a couple of doors away from his. He switched Potter's clothes for pyjamas, cast a scourgify, took his glasses off and put them on the bedside table, then covered the boy up. Severus called for one of his house elves and Toppy appeared with a pop.

"Watch this child and tell me when he wakes." He instructed the little creature. After checking that the child was still deeply asleep, he swept out of the room.

Harry drifted in a sea of black. He was comfortable, warm. He wondered whether he was dead or just dreaming. It certainly wasn't what he had always imagined death to be like. He had always thought that when someone died, they actually went somewhere, not just languishing in darkness.

A point of light suddenly shone above him. He drifted towards it, or was it drifting towards him? He was enveloped by the brightness, so different from his earlier surroundings. His first feelings were of pain, but not as much as he remembered. This was an achy pain, a healing pain. He recognized the sensation from his second year when he had lost all the bones in his arm and had to grow them back overnight.

He opened his eyes, the world bleary without his glasses. He sat up, wincing as the movement jostled his healing ribs. A soft pop drew his attention to the corner. Seeing nothing, he shrugged and reached over to pick up his glasses. As he put them on, he froze in surprise. The room was nothing like any of the bedrooms he had ever been in before. A middle sized room, bigger than his bedroom at the Dursleys, decorated with cream and green in S shaped swirls. He also realized that the bed was very comfortable. It had a thick duvet and soft pillows. The colouring was the same style as the rest of the room. He wondered who this room belonged to.

He looked at the doorway and froze again. Standing there was a man he defiantly was _not _expecting. Snape stood in his customary crossed arms position and the familiar sneer on his face. Potter stared at him with his mouth wide open for a few moments. Suddenly, the decorations made sense; of course the head of Slytherin would have green S's on his walls.

"If you're done gawping Potter, I hope you would answer a couple of questions I have for you." Harry nodded. Snape drew up a chair to Harry's bed side.

"Now, first of all, I found you lying on the side of a road with injuries that would have killed you had I not been there. What were you doing to get such wounds?" Harry began to explain hesitantly, the information only now making an impression.

"Um, well, I was walking to London and I remember head lights… they came towards me, filling my vision. I felt the impact as the… car, it must have been that, hit me. That's right; I got hit by a car."

"Why were you walking to London? You live in surrey. The normal thing would be to catch the knight bus."

"Well, I'd forgotten my wand…" Snape jumped to his feet, towering over Harry who flinched.

"You stupid child! You forgot your _wand_? Do I have to remind you that there are death eaters searching for you? Your wand is an essential part of your equipment. You should never go anywhere without it! Besides, you shouldn't be going anywhere. You should have waited for Dumbledore!" He stopped his shouted tirade as he saw Harry who had rolled up into a ball. He was breathing shallowly and had gone pale. Snape reached out a hesitant hand and touched Harry's shoulder. He immediately saw that it had been a mistake. Harry immediately scooted up the bed to press against the head board. He also started muttering.

"No uncle…..please uncle… I'm sorry… sorry… I won't do it again." Snape kept his distance, but tried to bring the boy out of his memories by repeating his name in a kind, soft voice that no one would ever associate with the dour potions professor.

"Potter," Harry curled up further. Right, obviously not that name. "Harry…. Harry? You're safe. You're not with your uncle. Listen to me Harry. You're safe." Slowly, agonisingly slowly, Harry came out of the painful memories.

He heard the soft, deep voice reassuring him. The voice told him to breathe. He tried to take in more oxygen than his shallow gasps were capable of, thereby forcing his breaths into a more normal pattern. Soon, the black spots receded from his vision and the memories faded into his mind. He looked up into the worried face of Severus Snape. Wait, worried? Harry blinked in surprise. He never would have thought that such an expression could ever appear on the face of his hated professor. Severus summoned a calming draught and handed it to Harry who drank suspiciously. His fears were allayed when the draught just relaxed him and deadened his emotions.

"Are you hungry Potter?" Harry nodded, still puzzled at the kindness in Snape's tone. The man summoned a house elf and ordered a bowl of chicken soup, glancing at Harry to see if that was alright.

The soup arrived and was devoured by Harry who was famished. As soon as the bowl was empty, Harry felt his eyelids drooping. Snape noticed this and asked him if he wanted to go to sleep. Harry nodded again and slid down the bed into a sleeping position. Snape rescued the bowl as it slid off the bed. Harry was fast falling into unconsciousness, his last memory was of ghost hands tucking the covers around his chin.

Severus moved quietly out of the room. He was still shocked at the reaction Harry had had to his shouting. The scars on Harry's back flashed in his mind. Obviously they hadn't been an isolated incident. He would have to pay a visit to Privet drive, if only to retrieve Potter's wand. Honestly, Voldemort and his death eaters were combing the countryside searching for him, and the stupid boy left without his wand. The child would probably sleep for several hours; plenty of time for a brief visit.

_A/N Well, there we have another chapter. Like I said at the beginning, I don't know when I'll update next. Thank you for all the reviews I've had. It would be nice to get some more. If you have any criticisms on this chapter or the last one, please tell me. See you soon (hopefully). _


	6. Chapter 6

_A/N I'm back. I have now got the entire story written out in my folder except for the last chapter and maybe one halfway through, I'm not sure about that one. Only these two chapters are typed out and half of the next one. I will try to update once a week, maybe more if I've had time, but I do have some pretty important exams coming up; they decide most of my future. Anyway, hope you enjoy! _

Severus walked down the road to Privet Drive for the third time in as many days. He strode up to the door of number 4 and rang the bell. There was no answering thunder of footsteps, just dead silence. He rang again and knocked as well. A window on the second floor of the house next door banged open.

"They're not there Luv. Gone on holiday with that obese son of theirs."

"What about their nephew?" asked Severus, not quite shouting.

"What nephew? Wait, hang on. Short boy with scruffy black hair?

"Yes"

"Don't know. Probably been sent back to school. Did you know, he goes to St Brutus' for incurably criminal boys? Least that's what Petunia says. In my opinion, their son is more criminal than their nephew is. Only last week-" Severus interrupted the chatty neighbour.

"Thank you for the information." He turned and strode back to the alley where he had apparated. His mind was buzzing with questions. What sort of guardians would go on holiday straight after their nephew went missing without even telling anybody? And what was this about a reform school? Potter had never shown criminal tendencies at Hogwarts; rule breaking, yes. Actual crimes, no. There was also that strange reaction to his shouting. But surely Albus wouldn't have left him there if he had been abused? Surely he would have known? But there were the marks on his back to be taken into account, as well as the malnourished appearance.

He disillusioned himself and went back to privet drive. Opening the door, he slipped into the house and went upstairs. Finally, in a small room with shabby furniture, Severus found a closed school trunk. He waved his wand and levitated it, disillusioning it as well. With what he came for, he exited the house, wondering again at the lack of evidence of a fourth person. There were photos of all the family, but not Harry. He had noticed on his other visits, but had not really paid attention.

He apparated back to Prince Manor still lost in thought. It was only when he arrived that he realised how close he had come to splinching! At his call, his house elf popped in.

"What is Potter doing Toppy?"

"Master's guest is sleeping sir." Severus nodded. Good.

"Keep watching Potter Toppy and when he wakes, give him some food. He must not under any circumstances leave the bed. His bones are still healing."

"Yes master Severus." Toppy went away with another pop.

Severus decided to pay a visit to Hogwarts. He needed Poppy to retrieve Potter for his peace of mind. He also needed Albus to reassure him that Potter was at the Dursleys for a good reason.

Walking into his office, he grabbed a handful of green floo powder and threw it into the fire, shouting,

"Hogwarts infirmary."

The severe white walls reflected the light from the many windows. The light only revealed even better that the room was empty. The castle was eerily silent without student chatter filling the corridors. Severus walked quickly to the great hall, then, finding that empty, walked up to Dumbledore's office. On the wall next to one of the gargoyles a note was posted.

Dear staff,

I hope you are enjoying your summer holidays as much as I am. This week the members of staff staying at Hogwarts are:

Pomona Sprout

Rubelus Hagrid.

Should anything untoward happen, I am at my brother's house for the next two weeks. Either one of the on duty staff members know how to contact me.

Enjoy your time off.

Albus Dumbledore.

Severus cursed softly under his breath. It was just typical of the manipulative headmaster to set him a job, then leave him to pick up the pieces. He was stuck with Potter now until Albus came back. There was no way he could entrust the precious golden boy-saviour to the Hufflepuff bungler or the half-giant oaf. He also couldn't foist the boy off on one of his friends like the Weasleys without Dumbledore's permission. No, he was burdened with the arrogant brat. He went back to the infirmary and floo'd home.

Arriving in his office again, he went to the bookcase and tapped a book labelled, 'a potion master's sanctuary' with his wand. The bookcase slid to the side, revealing a dark flight of steps ending at a thick wooden door. When the door handle was twisted, the bookcase slid back into place.

Severus muttered a lumos, and not only did his wand tip light, but several lamps around the walls did too. A good-sized potions lab was revealed with a well-stocked pantry to one side. Severus took out his equipment, then lost himself in the intricacies of the wolfbane potion; one of the most difficult and time consuming of them all, taking a month to brew, and using ingredients both tricky -needing to be added at exactly the right place- and rare.

Harry dreamt. In his dream he was a young baby playing with his parents. His dad was shooting smoke rings at him and he tried to touch them, his hands going through the multicoloured mist. Lily stood watching them, laughing. Harry looked at his mother, seeing her beauty anew. Suddenly, the bright day grew dark. The earth shook and cracked. Voldemort rose out of the crack. He raised his wand and shot a green blast at James. He then turned to Lily who dived in front of Harry. Voldemort laughed and killed her. Harry watched, unable to move as the dreaded snake-head turned to him. The chalk white face morphed into something worse, Sirius. The bodies of Harry's dead parents rose and came to flank their friend.

"Why did you let us die?" asked James.

"W-what?" he stammered.

"It was you he wanted. It was you we died protecting." Answered Lily pityingly.

"But I was just a baby. How could I have saved you?"

"Oh Harry. You're supposed to save us all. You had the power. Why didn't you use it?" James asked tenderly.

"I'm sorry." Harry whispered.

"And even if you were young, you didn't have that excuse with Sirius!" accused Lily. Harry looked at Sirius pleadingly. His godfather had been standing looking at him with burning eyes.

"Why did you kill me Harry?" he demanded. "If you loved me as your parents did you, you would have dived in front of that spell. It's you fault I'm dead!" throughout this speech, Harry had been muttering, 'no'. Now he shouted it out loud, drawing it out in his anguish.

"Noooo"

He woke in the green and cream room, screaming and thrashing around. He stilled, remembered where he was, groaned and looked to see whether anyone had heard. It appeared that they hadn't as Snape didn't come, demanding to know why his unwelcome guest was shouting the house down.

After a couple of moments there was a pop and a house elf apparated in.

"Good afternoon master Harry. I's called Toppy. I's brought you something to eat. Master Severus says not to get up. Toppy will help you if you need anything."

"Thanks Toppy." Replied Harry tiredly. "Just call me Harry please and no, there isn't anything I need." He put one foot to the floor, Snape be damned, but small hands pushed him back.

"Master Severus says not to get up." Harry mentally sighed. The house elf would follow his master's instructions to the letter and stop him from getting up using any means necessary.

"Then what can I do Toppy? I can't just lie here all day!" the little elf looked thoughtful for a moment, then snapped his fingers.

"Toppy has it! Master Harry could read! Does Master Harry wish me to get him a book?"

"Yes he does, I mean, yes I do please. Fiction please."

"Yes Master Harry." The house elf popped out and returned a few seconds later with a few thin books. Harry thanked him and selected one, soon getting lost in the wizarding action story.

Once he'd finished that story and got halfway through another, he had had another meal and was feeling very sleepy. The clock near his bed read midnight. He realised he'd spent over 7 hours reading! He put the book down and went to sleep.

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Severus wiped the sweat from his brow and cast a quick Tempus, and was surprised to find it was one in the morning. The potion was now at the stage that he could leave it for just over nine hours. He quickly went up to his bedroom, and a short shower later, was in his bed, dropping off to sleep.


	7. Chapter 7

The next morning Severus slept in and got up at 9:30 instead of his usual 8:00. He dressed and went down to breakfast. The trunk and wand sitting at the bottom of the stairs reminded him of his unwanted guest. Still, he made the most of his Potter free breakfast. Maybe the boy wasn't as pampered as his father had been, but he had inherited the perchance for trouble that came along with the name. There was no way he was allowing Harry Potter to wander around his home with a wand.

Once he had finished his meal, he slid the holly wand into his pocket and levitated the trunk up the stairs and along the passageway. When he reached the boy's room, he was surprised to see Potter awake. In his experience, teenagers wouldn't voluntarily get up before 10 o'clock. He waited in the doorway until Harry noticed him. That moment came a few seconds later, and was marked by a visible tensing through out his body.

"Well Potter, as you have time to read" he looked at the covers and sneered, "children's stories, you will have time to do your homework." He dumped the trunk at the bottom of the bed and folded his arms. "You may get up today; your bones should have healed sufficiently as long as you do no strenuous activity like Quidditch. You may go into any unlocked room or outside as far as the boundary walls. Further than that are wards that would have an unpleasant reaction to someone not keyed into them. If you go into the library, do not try to take any book higher than the fourth shelf. Breakfast is at 8:15, lunch at 12 and dinner at 7 o'clock. The headmaster is currently unavailable at present, so you and I are stuck in each other's company. If you follow these ground rules and do not disturb me, we shall both be alive at the end of the two weeks. Can even your small brain comprehend all this?"

"Yes sir." Harry replied, his voice rather subdued. Severus paused a moment to see whether he had anything else to add. The boy said nothing, so he turned with a swirl of robes out of the room, back down to his lab.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Harry waited a few minutes to see whether Snape was coming back. He didn't seem to be, so Harry cautiously stepped out of bed and went to open his trunk. Out of it, he grabbed some clothes he had bought in Hogsmede one weekend. Back at the Dursleys he wore Dudley's old cast-offs; they would be suspicious if he wore anything else, but at school under his robes he wore shirts and trousers that better fit him. He kept these in his trunk and changed into them when he got to the station.

With them in his hand, he went into the bathroom en suite with his bedroom. A shower later and he felt more refreshed than he had felt in days. Back to the trunk and out of the door with his homework. Now was the search to find the library. All the doors on this floor were locked, but he found the dining room, the kitchen, then finally the library on the floor below.

The library was long and lofty. It had deep set windows at ground level, but most of the light came from skylights set in the arched ceiling. The walls were panelled with a dark wood, where there were no books. The floor and ceiling were a sandy wood and the floor at least was highly polished. The bookcase themselves were ten layers tall, also made of a matching dark wood to the walls. They were double Harry's height and a small platform sat in the corner. At his touch it rose to hover a couple of inches off the floor. He stepped on it and thought about going up. It flew steadily upwards. He then thought about going down and again it followed his wishes. As Harry stepped off, he marvelled at what wizards came up with.

There was a low table with several chairs in the middle as well as several comfortable reclining seats scattered around the windows and a desk with a dark wooden chair at the far end. Harry dumped his homework on the table and sat in one of the chairs. He hadn't got much because of finishing the OWL syllabus, just History of Magic and Potions. Binns had set an essay on the 1589 goblin wars because he had forgotten which class they were, and Snape had given them an essay on the potion they had been tested on because he was cruel like that.

Two hours later and he was done. The little platform had come in useful. He just thought about what information he wanted to find on the first four shelves, and the platform would fly down to the various books with pieces of said information. Finding he had some spare time on his hands before lunch and not feeling much like flying, he looked for defensive and offensive spell books. When Sirius died, Harry decided he would learn as many spells and hexes that he could in order to defeat Voldemort. It wouldn't lift the guilt, but maybe then it would make his death a little less meaningless.

He found a book that looked good and contained a lot of useful spells, but was extremely boring. Halfway through the first chapter, he found his thoughts wandering to Snape. The man was behaving oddly. He was being less of a bastard than he normally was. He seemed to change mood like the weather, take last night for an example. He had shouted, then when Harry had flashbacked to his uncle and had a panic attack, had soothed. He couldn't get that out of his mind, but then what about last year? When he had found Harry in his memory, he had been so angry! Harry had thought at the time that he would have gone missing, only to be found in a ditch a few weeks later, stone cold dead. No, best to keep his head down and act the same way as he did around his uncle; be polite, undemanding, and try to keep out of his way.

That decided, he was able to pay a little more attention to the book and read another chapter before lunch time. He carefully marked his place and closed the book, then walked down the passageway to the dining room.

He almost ran into Snape as they met outside the room. Without a word, Harry stepped back and allowed Snape to go through first. The professor swept in and Harry followed. He was pointed to a chair; not quite adjacent to Snape's at the six-seater table. Toppy brought in the cold lunchmeats, salad and bread. Harry kept his head down and mused over the content of the last chapter. He didn't notice Snape looking curiously at him and the man didn't say anything.

When they had finished eating, Snape stood up and exited the room without a word. Harry breathed a sigh of relief and went back to his reading. He felt as though he was on a knife's edge living in the potion's professor's house.

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Severus finished the last currently possible steps of the wolf-bane. It now needed to simmer for two weeks. He decided to read a new potion master's journal he had recently acquired. Moving with his trademark silence, he was able to hear the turn of a page in his library. He almost struck his fore head. He had forgotten about his unwelcome guest. He looked around the door, curious to see what Potter was doing. The boy had been so quiet at lunch. His father had only ever been that quiet when he was plotting some prank or other. Hogwarts had learnt to be wary when the marauders were quiet.

How strange, Potter was reading. Well that was a surprise. Severus had expected him to be, lazing around, pretending to do his homework or rifling through the desk. After all, that would be exactly the same as looking in the pensive during the previous year. At least he know that Potter couldn't disobey the rule restricting what books he could read; there was a spell that would give him a nasty shock if he tried to remove a book off the shelves.

Suddenly Potter stood up and headed towards the door. Severus retreated behind one of the statues that stood on either side of the entrance. Potter went out in the direction of a bathroom without looking around. Severus found himself mentally tutting. If he had been a death eater, the golden boy would have stood no chance.

He slipped into the room and glided over to the table he had seen Potter working at. He saw the essay he had set completed along with another about goblin wars. Closing the book on his hand, he looked at the cover. 'Advanced defence spells against the dark arts.' A reasonable book for someone who would have to fight against the dark lord, but he couldn't believe that the boy-who-was-average-in-his-lessons would be capable of these spells. Yes, his marks in defence were mostly good, yes he could produce a corporal patronus which many full-grown witches and wizards couldn't. That didn't mean he was capable of these NEWT level hexes and spells.

Potter came back in the room. At the sight of Severus, he stopped, stiffened, then moved on again.

"Have you finished your potions essay?" he asked.

"Yes sir." Came the reply.

"Give it to me." Potter did so. "I'll mark it now and see how much you could mangle this easy work." He finished off with a sneer. He then turned and billowed out with a smirk.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Harry stood for a moment, watching the dour professor exit. He sat down and continued with his reading. More strange behaviour from the potions master. He hadn't insulted Harry, well, not much. Nothing compared to his usual standard. He hadn't commented on Harry's choice of reading material either.

Harry put these thoughts out of his mind and returned to his reading and note taking. He wished he had his wand not doubt Snape had it. It would make learning these spells so much easier. But then, the underage wizarding laws would prevent him from actually doing any magic. Stupid laws! He could already do some of them; he had found them in books at Hogwarts. The notes were both for his own usage and for if he kept the DA club up.

That evening, dinner was served with insults. Snape had marked his essay and the parchment was full of the spidery, red writing. Snape had been his usual hypocritical self and criticised his handwriting, even though the entire student body could hardly read his own. Harry had mutely let the words wash over his head, similarly to what he did when his uncle insulted his parents, until Snape, annoyed with the nil response he was getting, asked sarcastically whether he had never learnt to use a quill.

"No sir." Was Harry's answer.

"What do you mean, no sir?" queried Snape incredulously.

"I always used a biro or pencil in the muggle world, and no one ever taught me how to use a quill when I came to Hogwarts."

"But the headmaster gives lessons in writing for… muggle-borns." He looked thoughtful, then stood up and walked quickly out of the room. He returned a moment later with the quill Harry had been using, a roll of parchment and a small knife. He called for Toppy to clear away the empty plates and laid his burden down on the now clear table. He turned his chair to face Harry, holding up the quill.

"Now look at this point." Harry did. It was cracked and thick with caked on ink. "The most important thing is to have a sharp, clean point at 45 degrees. You use a knife." He held up the blade. "To cut this point like…so." He cut a sharp, clean edge. "It is called a penknife for a reason."

Unrolling the parchment, he uncovered a small bundle of feathers ready to be used. Snape thrust one at Harry along with the knife. "Cut a point." Harry looked at him bewildered. "Preferably before Christmas Potter." Harry positioned the knife to cut. Snape lunged forward, grabbing his hands. Harry flinched back and they accidentally made eye contact. Green gazed into black, the emerald fearful, lighting a spark of sympathy in the obsidian.

The moment was over as quickly as it had happened. Snape looked down at the feather and knife.

"You are holding it all wrong Harry." He directed Harry's hands and together they made a cut. It wasn't perfect, but it was better than before.

"Right now Potter. Try again with the rest of these quills until you have as clean an edge as this first one." He stood up again and disappeared out the door. Harry slowly worked his way through the quills using trial and error to work out the ideal angle of the knife to cut the tip. 'Typical Snape. Doesn't say what to do, just says to do it!' he grumbled mentally.

When he had got through the small pile of feathers, his edges were looking much better. He tried writing with his last pen. It worked. Th handwriting wasn't as good as Hermione's, but it was much better than the ink spotted, untidy scrawl it had been before.

He looked at the clock, surprised to see that it was already into the tenth hour; time seemed to pass so quickly. A quick shower and change later, he was lying in bed. Without thinking he put up the wandless silencing ward he had always used at the Dursleys to keep them from being disturbed by his screaming nightmares. Five minutes later, he was asleep.

Severus looked up from the potion master's journal he was reading to see it was nearing midnight. 'Time to go to bed' he thought. 'I wonder if Potter's still up.'

He put the journal away and headed to the dining room. There was a pile of cut quills on the table. Severus tested the points. 'Not bad, but he could still use some more practice.' So thinking, he cleared away the feathers, went back to the library and opened a drawer in his desk. Out of this he took another pile of uncut feathers. Placing them on the table, he wrote a note and placed it on top.

The time was now just after midnight so he walked up the stairs to his room. On the way, he passed Potter's open door. Potter was lying half off the bed, his blankets sweaty and twisted around him/

Severus flicked his wand once to untwist the sheets. Another flick and Potter was under them properly. He tucked the bedclothes under the boy's chin, then, surprising himself, passed a hand over the teen's tousled hair.

Quickly, he backed away from the boy and the memories that threatened to assault him. He left and continued to his own room to get ready for bed. Even with the occlumency exercises he used, sleep was a long time coming to his bed.

_A/N Just in case anyone is wondering, yes I do mean Snape to switch between Harry and Potter without realising it. It's meant to show that Snape's opinions are changing towards Harry, however, he still has a way to go._


	8. Chapter 8

_A/N look at this! A new chapter. And in good time too. I hope you're pleased. Thank you for all those who have sent me a review. I will probably not reply unless you have a question, but I read them all and me heart is uplifted by your thoughts. Anyway, onto the chapter!_

Harry woke unrefreshed at 7:30. His sleep had been fractured by nightmares. He hadn't had a decent nights sleep ever since…'no,' he though, 'I must admit it. Ever since I killed Sirius'. When put that way, it made sense; the destined killer or victim losing sleep over his first victim so he knows what's in store for if he killed Voldemort.

Harry turned the shower on to wash the sweat of his night away. The heat relaxed him. He relished the burning sensation that seemed to purify all. The Dursleys had only really allowed him to shower, and it always happened after either Dudley or Vernon had had theirs, so all the hot water had been used.

Heading downstairs he didn't feel hungry, so went straight to the library. On the table he had been working at, there was a pile of feathers with a note on top. He read the note and groaned.

'Mr Potter

The quills you cut were the standard of a first year.

I have left you some uncut goose feathers. Finish them before lunch.

If I find that your work is satisfactory, you will be allowed to move onto the next step.'

It was unsigned, but who else could have written it apart from Snape? Harry sighed and set to work. After finishing that, he got back down to his reading. He was approaching the middle of the thick book by lunch time; it was written in such a dry and boring fashion that he could hardly concentrate.

At midday, he went to the dining room. Snape glared at him over his plate.

"Where were you this morning?" he snapped.

"I wasn't hungry sir." Snape mused over a mouthful of coffee."

"Were you often not hungry at the Dursley's?"

"No. I was always hungry when they gave me something to eat."

Snape eyed him, wondering whether Harry would willingly give up more information. Deciding that nothing short of veritaserum or legilimency would work, he let it go for the moment.

"Have you trimmed those quills?"

"Yes sir."

"I'll look after we have finished." They completed the meal in silence. In an unspoken agreement, they stood up at the same time and Snape led the way to the library.

Snape looked through the neatly lined up quills that Harry had arranged in a pattern in his boredom. Outwardly he showed his trademark of no positive emotion, but inwardly he felt the sense of satisfaction that came when a student had a break through in a skill. It was quite impressive for Potter to have learnt this basic skill in two days, that all wizarding children learnt, but Muggle raised often found problems with. Not that he was going to admit that though.

"Potter, these are the standard I have come to expect from you. Luckily for you, they are good enough to move onto the next step. Write a sentence on this parchment…"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Snape and Harry had tea together having spent most of the afternoon on Harry's writing. It had been a gruelling time; Snape hadn't held back on berating him if a letter was the slightest bit smudged. Harry's writing was showing much improvement. He doubted it would ever meet Hermione's standard, but it was already better than Ron's and Snape had pronounced it legible.

Considering that Snape hadn't actually lost his temper that afternoon, Harry ventured a question.

"Sir, why are you helping me like this?" Snape looked up, his face unreadable.

"If I have to mark your essays, I might as well be able to read them." Harry nodded slowly, but a though then struck him.

"I thought you only let people with outstandings in your NEWT class?"

"I do." Harry looked up at him.

"Then you won't have to mark an essay of mine ever again." His eyes narrowed slightly. "After all, a potions student as awful as you are always telling me I am wouldn't stand a chance of gaining the required mark in my OWLs."

Suddenly realising how much he had said, he coloured and looked down at the teacup in his lap. As he wasn't looking at Snape's face, he missed the slightly embarrassed look that flashed across the normally expressionless visage.

"The atmosphere in my classroom is to teach students how to work under pressure. Most students gain a high grade in their OWLs because compared to my lessons, the exam is easy. I'm just making sure. Also, your other teachers will probably be thankful when they can actually read what you have written without a deciphering charm." Snape's tone was firm and final. The rest of the teatime passed in silence.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

After the tea, they separated and Potter returned to his research. Severus exited, puzzled. Potter had done more reading and work in the last couple of days than he would ever have expected of the work shy Gryffindor. And Potter had seemed willing enough to be taught how to write with a quill; recognising his weakness instead of blustering as his father would have done.

A paradigm shift had been happening slowly to the man, ever since he had come upon Potter, bleeding to death on a bank, malnourished and with whip marks on his back. He headed down to his potion's lab, but when he reached halfway, changed his mind. Instead he strode to his study.

Sitting at his desk, he tapped one of the drawers with his wand to disable the wards around it. Opening it, he took out a green, leather bound book with a silver clasp. This was his journal. He normally wrote in it every day, just before dinner. It was a good way of evaluating his thoughts and feeling; almost like an alternate occlumency exercise.

The security on the book was pretty tight. He cut his finger and let a drop of blood touch the silver before healing the slit, then pressed his finger to the same spot. The blood gave his magical signature and the finger, his finger print. The blood had to be given willingly for it to work. If the clasp was opened without these guarantees, it would merely show potion recipes with a few notes added; a very Slytherin book.

These measures were necessary because of his status as a death eater spy. If any from the light side read it, they would condemn him to Azkaban for life because of the things he had done. If any from Voldemort's circle read it, they would kill him for turning traitor. Severus trod the fine line between both groups. He remembered the night Voldemort had sent him to Hogwarts…

**Flashback**

"Severus, you will take up the recently vacant post of potion's master and Hogwarts. I want you to spy on Dumbledore and access his plans. I know he will try to obstruct my way to complete power anyway possible." Severus bowed low before the throne.

"Yes My Lord. I shall not fail. May I make a suggestion?"

"You may."

"Might I pretend to be a spy for the order? Of course, really reporting to you. It would give me access to more plans and remove suspicion when I answer your call." Voldemort tapped his chin, thinking through the proposed scheme.

"What a devious idea. Carry it through."

"Yes my lord." Severus stood waiting for the dismissal. The dark lord often did this; giving an instruction that sounded like a dismissal, then cursing them as they moved.

"You are dismissed." Snape turned to go. "Oh, and Severus," the death eater looked back. "You know what will happen if I ever start to doubt your true loyalty don't you?" he fingered his wand. Snape bowed low, holding the pose for a minute, then exited.

**End flashback**

He had still been deep in the dark fold then. It was only later when he had been exposed to Dumbledore's forgiveness and kindliness that he started having doubts on the benefits of the dark lord's service. A few months after that, he heard the prophecy. Voldemort had been treating him with more suspicion of late because of the lack of crippling information on the light. Severus was unwilling to be killed and feared that the dark lord had heard something in his thoughts as to his wavering allegiance, so was hasty to assure him of his loyalty.

Little did he know that the damned thing would cause the death of the only woman he had ever loved. He didn't particularly care about the death of James Potter, although he had missed not doing it himself; the arrogant twit was unfortunately never on the same raid as he was. Only little Harry Potter had survived. On that night, that fateful Halloween, the dark lord had vanished, but his mark had only faded. Severus was one of the few that were sure he would come back.

Nevertheless, he was gone at present and Severus was broken hearted. He had gone to Dumbledore and poured out the entire story. Dumbledore, unwilling to be hoodwinked, did a soul reading on him, finding the verification of his story hidden in his deep grief and guilt. The headmaster had proposed that he would remain the potions professor to satisfy the minister and keep an eye on the mark.

The ministry had been magnanimous; they had captured many death eaters, and though some like Malfoy had wriggled their way out of sentencing, the most dangerous took a one way trip to Azkaban. It had worked out for Severus as well in the end; he had needed the pure good of Albus to help him through the aftermath of Lily's death.

Lily. James. Harry; he didn't understand how people could say Harry was the carbon copy of James Potter. Anyone who had known Lily would surely be able to see that Harry had Lily's eyes, yes, but also her nose, lips and high cheek bones. Really, only his jaw, forehead and hair were from James Potter. But no. He was called a carbon copy of Severus' enemy!

Those eyes… they wrenched at his heart whenever he looked into them. Especially now. They were so full of pain, so devoid of laughter; something Lily's had never been. Hers had always sparkled, unless of course, they were flashing with temper. Despite being a mangy mutt that should have been put down at birth, Black had been the one truly close to a parent the boy had ever had. Now he was dead, or at least as close to death as a person could be. No one really knew what happened behind the veil.

He sighed. Not only had he been loaded with a student for the next two week, let alone his most hated student, but this boy had Issues with a capital I! How on earth was he going to be able to help the child with the five years of hate they had between them?

Severus had never really hated _Harry_. He had hated Potter and that anger had come out on the boy who at first glance looked so like him. Also, he had to keep his cover strong for when the dark lord rose again. Being a death eater and Slytherin who still had friendships with free, suspected death eaters, he had to keep up a front of animosity towards Griffindors, especially the boy-who-lived, bane of he-who-must-not-be-named's existence. Griffindors were easy enough to hate; they were brash, arrogant, and never thought before doing. Completely different from the careful, scheming Slytherins. And if he only saw the James in Harry, he could keep up a mask of hatred. As the months turned into years over Harry's school career, the mask had attached itself so firmly to Severus, he wasn't sure whether it would ever come off.

Severus looked down at the page. His thoughts were scrawled across several leaves of the book. He saw with detached interest the way his writing changed talking about Lily, Harry, the Dark Lord and Dumbledore. At some points, his hand was hardly legible, at others, it was almost a pleasure to read. The former was when writing about Voldemort, James Potter and sometimes Harry. The latter was when writing about Lily, most of the time Dumbledore, and occasionally Harry.

He closed the journal and placed it in the drawer, replacing the wards protecting it. He looked at the clock and realised it was time for dinner. He was alone at the table; Harry hadn't shown up. Severus was surprised that he actually missed seeing the black haired boy. Wait, _missed_? No he was just worried about his house. Even without a wand, who knew what a Potter could get up to?

When dinner was finished, he strode to the library. Certain that that was where he was, he was proved right. Harry jumped as he spoke; he hadn't heard the spy come in.

"Potter, you have missed dinner. You shouldn't get so distracted reading what I suspect," he sneered. "are Quidditch books." Knowing fully that he had no Quidditch books in his library. "What if I had been a loyal death eater? If you're hungry, get something in the kitchen." He swept out, feeling strangely reassured that Potter had only lost track of time because he was reading.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Harry looked guiltily at the time. In truth, he had not felt the passing of hours. Nothing was more important to him than learning as much magic as possible, so that he wouldn't kill someone else as he had Sirius. He would be able to get rid of Voldemort and protect countless people. After all, he was the only one that could. So when he had found an interesting defence book, well, he just lost track.

He wasn't really hungry, hadn't truly been since Sirius had died. Yes, when the Dursleys starved him he felt his stomach rumble and ache, but the food he ate just turned to ashes in his mouth. He had eaten at the Dursley's because if he didn't, he wouldn't have the energy to do the strenuous chores they set him. But here, all he did was read all day so he could surely miss one or two?

By the time he decided to go to bed, his head was throbbing with the unusual reading, his eyes were painful and strained from reading through glasses with the wrong prescription, and he could not focus.

He went upstairs and showered, changing into the old shirt of Dudley's he used as night wear. After doing that, he crawled into bed and turned of the light, thankful for its warm softness. He had some deep, dreamless sleep for a couple of hours; an almost unheard of luxury for the guilt stricken boy. After that, the dream returned.

This time, Vernon Dursley was here. When Voldemort killed his parents, a large hand wrapped itself around his wind pipe.

"See this freak? This is why you came to us. We were your punishment for killing your parents" Voldemort's face morphed into he's godfathers as usual.

"And now you're in Snape's house. Who knows what he could do to you? He might even hand you over to Voldemort, we were never sure of that man's true loyalty. Surely the rewards he offers for the death eater who brought him you would tempt a saint. And he's no saint. Who better would know?" James and Lily rose, speaking in unison.

"Murderer. You deserve all that is coming to you. You should get rid of Voldemort then kill yourself so the world is free from both your evil stains. Do your duty then die. Die!" Vernon's hand constricted, choking Harry. He thrashed around, trying to get free but it only tightened. Gathering his last breath, he tried to scream.


	9. Chapter 9

_Hi guys. Thank you very much all you who have written reviews. They lift my soul so much! I have meant to put this chapter up for a couple of days now, but kept forgetting when I had access to a computer with internet. _

Severus was woken from his slumber by a piercing scream. It cut through him like a knife. He leapt out of bed, calling for his elf. Toppy appeared with a pop looking very unconcerned.

"What is going on? What was that sound?" Severus demanded.

"Master Harry Potter is having his usual nightmare master." The man sighed and headed to Potter's room, if only to place a silencing charm on the boy.

Potter was thrashing around on the bed, sobbing. He was streaked with sweat and every movement he made tightened a blanket around his throat. The damn boy-who-lived-to-disturb-him was going to do what Voldemort had been trying to do for almost fifteen years; kill himself.

After a few moments trying to wake Potter whilst dodging the flying fists and feet, he was clouted on the head and lost his temper. Being woken up in the middle of the night and getting hit for his trouble was never good for his anger management.

He cast a body bind charm which forced Potter's arms and legs straight and together, then conjured a bucket full of ice cold water and tipped it over the teen's head. With Potter staring wide eyed at him but unable to move, he unwound the blanket and undid the charm.

"What on earth were you dreaming about that made you caterwaul so loudly, the sound carried onto another floor? And do you have a death wish?" he snorted, his eyes flashing. "Stupid question. Of course you do. Well, would you be kind enough to refrain from dying until you are out of my house!" Potter flinched at that and looked away, pulling himself up into a sitting position up against the head board; as far from the angry man as he could be and still remain on the bed. "Well Potter? What was your dream about?"

"Nothing." Potter mumbled, his fingers twisting in the coverlet and his head down.

"That was not nothing. Surely even your miniscule brain can comprehend that something bad enough to cause you to almost kill yourself is important?" Severus' curiosity grew as Potter kept silent. The boy he knew would blurt out everything he dreamt about to get sympathy. "Maybe it's about that mangy mutt of a godfather. Maybe he was trying to give you a hug. Yes, I would get nightmares from that." Snape sneered. Potter's eyes flew up to meet his, flashing in anger.

"Shut up you greasy git, shut up! Don't you know I know I murdered Sirius! Why are you rubbing my nose in it?" Murdered Sirius? And what did Toppy mean by, 'usual nightmare'? Why hadn't he heard before if these happened frequently?

Too curious to continue with this inefficient questioning and Potter's eyes being so kind as to keep contact, he pointed his wand at the boy, ignored the flinch and shouted,

"Legilimens!" he searched through the thoughts looking for ones pertaining to nightmares. He was assaulted by hundreds, thousands. Briefly stopping in each one, he viewed the fearful dreams. Voldemort, Vernon, more Voldemort, more Dursley, Cedric, James and Lily and most recent, Black. Stopping in the last one he looked at the one he had interrupted. How idiotic; the Gryffindor blamed himself for his godfather's death and not only that, but Cedric and his parents' too, idiotic, yet not much different from what he had done after Lily's demise.

Intrigued by all the appearances of Harry's uncle, he thought this confirmed his suspicion of abuse and looked around for memories of these events. How strange, nothing at all. Normally nightmares of such vividness would indicate strong memories full of emotion. Yet there appeared to be no such memories.

He was about to exit, when he noticed a dark corner with strong repelling protections. He went over to it. The ineffective fly that was Harry's consciousness trying to push him out intensified the closer he got. In the end, Severus had to use some of that brute force he had accumulated over years of legilimency practice. Shaking off the resisting Potter, he dived into the dark sphere.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

What felt like hours, but in reality was only minutes later, Severus exited Harry's mind, shaken and pale. He now knew more than he had ever wanted to know about the boy-who-lived's childhood. His suspicions had been confirmed many times over. More horrors than he had even suspected were brought to light. Harry's childhood had been worse than his own. At least he had had his mother to go to. Harry on the other hand had been totally alone. There had been no one to gainsay what the Dursleys said about his parents and him. For the first time, Severus felt regret for his actions towards Harry. He had always thought he was persecuting a boy who would be able to recover with his friends' help and the two months over the summer. When he had entered the Dursley home, he realised Petunia had never released her resentment at the wizarding world, but he had thought Dumbledore would have stepped in if things got too bad.

That was a point. Why _had_ Dumbledore let things get so bad? Why hadn't he checked up on him, especially when Harry was young and impressionable? It had taken the death of his godfather to send a staff member to check up on the saviour of the light. Why? After all, this was his golden boy, the only hope against Voldemort. What use would a broken boy be?

He came out of his thoughts to see Harry curled up in a ball against the headboard, his arms shielding his head. Severus recognised the pose from memories involving a certain fat Muggle. He sat on the bed near to Harry, but kept out of arms reach; he didn't know what Harry's reaction would be.

"Harry…. Harry, you're safe." he said soothingly. Harry said nothing, but his thoughts were so loud that Snape, with the light connection from the legilimency, could hear them and winced,

_'You slimy bastard, you fucking mind raped me! You expect me to feel safe do you?'_

"I give you my word that I will not legilimens you again in this house without your permission."

_'Yeah, like that's worth anything!'_

"My word is all I have left." Severus responded bitterly.

_'Wait, he's reading my mind now? Get the hell out you bastard!'_

"Harry, I can't help it. It's an after effect of the spell and you're thinking _very_ loud! If you don't want me to hear you, stop 'shouting'!"

_'Can you still hear me now?' _Harry's 'voice' was greatly subdued, but still there.

"Yes."

_'Damn'_

"You really need to improve your occlumency skills. Even a half blood knows more than you."

_'Yeah? Well I grew up with muggles and you were an awful teacher_.' Harry snapped

"You're accusing me of being the reason you failed? You were a bloody awful student. You never used your knowledge of occlumency, you never did as told. Mind you, that's normal. I shouldn't have expected anything different" Snape sneered.

"What knowledge? All you said was to try to push you out of my mind. You didn't _tell_ me anything!" by this time Harry was shouting.

"Calm down Potter, I meant the knowledge headmaster Dumbledore taught you before sending you to me of course." Harry just looked bewildered.

"Dumbledore didn't tell me a thing." It was Snape's turn to look puzzled.

"That is strange. The headmaster told me that he had taught you the basics, meditation, basic shielding, thought organisation etc, and that you only needed to test your defences against a probe. He told me he didn't want to do it himself because the Dark Lord might detect his power and investigate. Did he not teach you this?" Harry shook his head.

"No sir. Nothing like that. I asked him why he didn't teach me himself and he gave the same reason as he gave to you."

Severus tapped one of his long fingers on his chin, thinking. He had a suspicion as to why the manipulative old man had lied; he was constantly trying to push the two together for who knows what reason. They sat in silence for a while. Severus wondered when the conversation had gone from the half mental _'voice_' to the usual speech on both sides. He hadn't noticed.

"Surely once you'd been in by mind once, you could tell I hadn't had instruction?" Severus shrugged.

"A wise man said that there are none so blind as those who do not wish to see. Maybe deep down I knew, but I didn't want to dig so I chalked it up to your obvious inability to concentrate. I didn't want to examine the relationship between us."

"Why?" asked Harry, leaning forward curiously. He let the usual insult pass by without mention; they had already had one argument about such things.

"You do not perhaps understand my difficulty. I am a death eater, even if I do not truly follow the dark lord. I have friends among the death eaters. When you came to school, before you were Harry Potter, you were the boy-who-lived. You are also the son of my childhood enemy. Such rivalries last a long time if not solved in adolescence. For sake of my affiliations, I had to hate you, on the surface at the very least. At first glance, you look very much like your father. That reminder made it very easy to hate you deeper down and convince myself you were arrogant and conceited like your Pater." He was silent on the subject of jealousy. If he had not listened to his father, if only he had run away…. Such thoughts were best left alone. Thoughts that Harry could have been his son if things had turned out differently. Once, there had been a chance of Lily's love. But no, back to the conversation in hand.

"My role is cast. If anything changed between the two of us, I could not remain the vindictive bat persona I have built up through the years. The barrier though has been breaking."

"And now? What's its state?"

"In shambles. It has been under attack ever since you arrived at the manor with scars on your back. An enlightening visit to your relatives' home cracked it up more and tonight's events have torn it down. I … apologize Harry."

"What for?"

"Harry, the way I've treated you over the past years was unfair but unavoidable. This legilimency attack on your privacy may help in the long run, but that doesn't make it right." Harry's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Why are you calling me Harry now?"

"I have partly explained your father's features made hatred easier. Said resentment is rooted in the name. Get rid of the root and the emotion will follow swiftly after. Will the reciprocated hate be able to be removed as easily?" Harry eyed him closely, then suddenly smiled and stuck out his hand.

"Hi. My name is Harry Potter. Pleased to meet you. Call me Harry." Severus creased his brow in a quandary as to the meaning of the gesture.

"What does this mean?"

"I just thought it would make starting afresh easier."

Severus hesitated, then grasped the offered limb firmly and surely.

"Greetings. My name is Severus Snape, but you may call me Severus whilst staying here." Releasing the hand, he fixed Harry with a stern glare. "But not in public or off these grounds." Harry smirked mischievously. Enough of their connection remained for Snape to be able to skim off the surface thoughts. "And no blackmail either!" Harry quickly turned away, but his shaking shoulders revealed his laughter. Severus raised an eyebrow and shook his head. One could never understand the changing emotions of youth.


	10. Chapter 10

_A/N sorry for such a late update. My mum banned me from the internet for a month. Until 14th Feb in fact. Luckily, I was able to amass enough brownie points to get it back but I hadn't been able to do any writing during the ban. Anything connected to fanfiction was forbidden. It wasn't even for anything bad! I just forgot to do a chore at the right time. I mean, I could have done it the next morning, but nooo. I can't go on the computer except for homework!_

_To Alex() if you were a member or had logged in, I would have replied by email but oh well. Harry is not actually trusting Severus totally. After all, he does know that Severus has never really physically hurt him, and has in fact saved him several times. Besides, Harry has grown up in an environment where he keeps himself to himself and puts on a front of belief in what the adult tells him. There is also the house to consider. Harry has no memories associated with Snape Manor. He would be acting completely differently if this story were to take place in Privet Drive._

_I'm sorry if this doesn't clear up any issues I have never had any personal experience with abused children; I only know what I've read._

_Thanks everyone else for your reviews, I read every one even if I don't reply. Anyway, here's the chapter. mum banned me from the internet for a month. until nightmares. they'_

Harry came into the dining room, paused on the threshold then entered and pulled out a chair. He sat down heavily and started eating the breakfast that appeared on his plate.

"Good morning Harry."

"Morning prof-er-Severus." It felt so unnatural to call the dour potion's professor by his given name. Almost as strange as to hear it reciprocated. Well, at least he knew it hadn't been a dream last night. The entire affair had had a nightmare like quality in the morning. When he had got halfway through his breakfast, Severus spoke up.

"How often do you have these nightmares?"

"Uh, almost every night. I only escape them when I'm totally exhausted. The Dursleys helped with that." He spoke of his family with a deeply bitter tone in his voice. Severus steepled his long white fingers and his gaze became far away.

"You really need to learn occlumency. It is idiotic for you to have gone so long without such defences when you have a connection to our arch nemesis as well as the fact it will prevent such frequent nightmares. They'll still happen, just not as frequently. Besides, it is unseemly for a pureblood to be so uneducated." Harry frowned, confused.

"What do you mean about me being a pureblood? I thought my mother's blood made me a half?"

"It is confusing. The definition of pureblood is that you have two magical parents. You are technically a first generation pureblood, but it would not be sensible to go around calling yourself that."

"Why not? I thought that the wizarding world holds purebloods over all?" Snape hmm'd a moment, thinking out his reply.

"Mostly true. Let me explain the hierarchy of the wizarding world. Muggleborns are the lowest of the low. They will only get a good job if they can disguise their blood line or their employer doesn't care. Next are the half bloods. Within that group are levels; a muggleborn and a muggle is the lowest, a muggle and a pureblood the highest. Next are the purebloods. Within the purebloods is rank. This is based on how many generations' pureblood, wealth and magical power. In your case, you will be respected for your wealth and power as well as for your father's blood, but if you go around as a first generation pureblood, you will be viewed as having aspirations past your place. Such people are considered social climbers and are less respected than if they had stuck with a half blood heritage." Harry nodded slowly, chewing his mouthful; he had been eating whilst Severus talked.

"I think I understand. Complicated though."

"Yes… I thought we could work on your occlumency today, that's why I brought it up." Harry looked up in surprise. "The skill takes time to perfect and who knows when you will meet the Dark Lord again?" Harry shrugged. It was a bit scary thinking that Voldemort could find him anytime he wanted through his scar. He would willingly learn if he was going to succeed this time.

When he had finished, they got up together and Severus lead to a small room. It was dark panelled like the rest of the house, but unlike the other parts, had gold inlay instead of silver or green. There was a sofa, a comfy chair and a desk.

"My study." Severus said shortly. He pointed Harry to the sofa and sat beside him. They were both stiff, unused to being so familiar.

"The most important step in occlumency is to sink into your mind until it is tangible. There, you will find the element that most suits you and your memories. You will need to sort them out and build defences. Only then will you be able to exit your mind. Understand?" Harry shrugged and nodded slowly.

"Sort of. I guess I'll understand it better when I'm there. So how do I get there?"

"You have to enter a trance. Normally you would spend some time learning how to meditate, but in your case, we don't have the time. So you need to relax. And turn around." He added. Harry turned and faced him. "No, the other way." He turned again, more slowly this time, tensing up because he was exposing his back to a once enemy.

Severus moved. Unconsciously, Harry tensed even more at the shifting of weight. When Severus touched his back, he couldn't stop the violent flinch that almost jolted him off the couch. The hands started moving, massaging his shoulders and neck. Harry felt a sleepiness pervading him and his muscles relaxed against his will. The feeling was so good that he couldn't be embarrassed as he flopped into his professor's lap and closed his eyes.

It was pitch black. He was falling, well, he thought he was. He could feel air moving past him, but couldn't tell whether it was going up or down or even to the side. It was so dark he couldn't see his hand when he waved it in front of his face, there was no way he could have seen any point of reference.

The air stopped moving, but he felt nothing. _Lumos _he thought and the space lit up with a golden light, as unlike the white of the spell as it was from the original blackness. The light came from a central fire in the middle of the circular room and sconces set in the honey coloured panels covering the walls. Harry walked closer to the fire, marvelling that he hadn't thought of it before. Fire suited him well; a cleansing fire, a fierce, uncontrollable blaze. His temper had always been described as fiery. And of course, he had always loved the flickering, dancing flames in the rooms at Hogwarts. Often, he had spent hours gazing into the glowing heart when he was supposed to be doing homework.

Harry looked around the rest of the room. He had already discerned it was circular and wood, but he hadn't looked up. The ceiling was arched, soot coloured wood, but this was hardly visible; there was a mass of moving threads just above head height obscuring his view. Curiously, he touched a red finger of light that poked down at him.

Suddenly he was back in Privet drive, watching his uncle kick a small child with raven locks who was curled on the floor near a white door in the stairs. The beefy man picked the child up by his wrist and, ignoring the cries of pain, threw the boy into the cupboard, slamming the door shut, bolting it shut and closing the ventilation shutter.

Just as quickly as it had started, he was back in the room. He saw the thread fly towards a door which opened to let it in, then closed again. Harry frowned; that door hadn't been there before. He walked over to it. 'Dursleys' was written on a copper nameplate fixed to the door. He frowned again, too obvious. Putting his hand on the door, he concentrated. The nameplate now read, 'Durzkaban'. He smiled. Much better.

With a sense of foreboding, he realised that he would have to go through every memory swirling above his head. Sighing, he closed his eyes and bravely thrust his hand into the multicoloured mess.

Harry came out of the last memory. He was totally exhausted. Whether the memories had been happy, sad, angry or anything else, they had been emotionally draining. It had been good for him. He had finally come to terms with the deaths that had happened around him for all his life. He knew that all of those murders were in some way linked to Voldemort, sole blame lay on him. Cedric had taken the cup of his own free will, to be murdered on Voldemort's orders. Sirius had left the house without Harry wanting him to, to die by falling through the veil because of a curse from Lestrange. Even his parents had chosen to protect him; they could have left the house without him. They died at the personal point of Voldemort's wand. There was

He now had five doors in the main 'atrium' as he called it. 'Durskaban' held all the memories he had of the Dursleys, with subsections on the individual members and his primary school.

His memories of Hogwarts were put in 'Castles in the Air' with subsections of school work, social life and near death experiences. Thinking of the name, he half smiled. Ironic really. Hogwarts was meant to have been a refuge. A place away from the Dursleys, somewhere he could make friends away from his cousin's input and his uncle's intimidation. Of course, he had never got used to working to his full potential; too many years of not doing much better than Dudley or punishment at home. Somewhere he could be _normal_. Huh. He had indeed built a castle in the air. From day one, people had stared at him, whispered about him because of his mother' protection. He had experienced the fickleness of public opinion, the way even his friends turned on him. People had loved him in years one, three and some of them, five. The public hated him years two, four and most of them, five. He thought with sudden satire, maybe it was an even numbers thing. Far from being a safe refuge, he had been attacked at Hogwarts every single year by Voldemort, more Voldemort, dementors, dragons and other assorted magical beasts, Voldemort, then a demented professor and _more_ Voldemort. _Safe, I don't think so!_

'My strength' contained his memories of his friends and his godfather. The subsections were of Ron, Hermione, Neville, Luna, Sirius, Ginny, Remus and Tonks.

Prongslet contained all the new found memories of his parents. Being a wizard, his magic had imprinted his early years in his mind, but it was only now he had got rid of all the other memories he could find them. For some reason, the Avada Kedavra curse had formed a barrier between the memories and him. When he had touched the glowing green membrane, it had disappeared and he had been able to access the coloured strands of light.

Finally, 'Moldy-shorts' had all the memories from Voldemort. The sub sections for this were past encounters, back ground, strengths and weaknesses. The last was lamentably bare. Only the prophecy and what Dumbledore had told him about his inability to bear love had gone in there.

Some of the memories had had to go into two categories. These memories duplicated or triplicated themselves before zooming through the opening doors. Harry lay down. His legs felt as though they wouldn't hold him up any longer. _Building defences can wait until I have slept_ was his last thought before his eyes fluttered shut and he was dead to the world.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Severus looked over to the body lying so quietly on the couch. He noticed that Harry was now sleeping instead of in a trance. Obviously the boy had finished his memory sorting. He gently probed Harry's mind. It wasn't legilimency, just an extra perception that only natural occlumens had. When he had gone through the process Harry was going through now, he had found he had the ability to see whether a person had shields or not without alerting them that he was a legimens. The result of his scan was that Harry hadn't started on his defences yet. Judging by his own experience, Harry would be out for another 7 to 8 hours. He would then probably build his defences, then wake up around ten that night.

Harry had been twitching slightly and grimacing with the occasional smile for the lat five hours. More grimaces than smiles, it had to be said. _Mind you_, he thought, _it isn't really surprising considering his life._ Dursleys, Voldemort and various teachers not to mention his peers and the general public. He had had enough unpleasantness in his short time on earth to last the rest of his life time.

Seeing that Harry wouldn't be moving until that evening at least, Severus went down to his lab to try out a new potion he had found in the potion master's journal. It was meant to increase mental capacity and easier comprehension. Perhaps he should try to convince the headmaster to slip it into the pumpkin juice at the beginning of term. It might reduce the accidents in the potion's lab, especially if used in conjunction with a hearing aid potion or spell. But no. The headmaster would never sanction such a move. And if he ever did it surreptitiously, and said anything about the potion or results, the omniscient man would put the pieces together and call him to his office. There he would look over the tops of his half-moon glasses until Severus was wracked with guilt, then speak to him in that sternly disappointed note in his voice. As soon as Severus got as close to an apology he would ever come, that patented twinkle would return to Dumbledore's blue eyes and Severus would go to brew the antidote. Pity.


	11. Chapter 11

Harry woke up, well, he thought he had, but was actually back in the circular room. Six doors led off. Wait, six? Durzkaban, Castles in the Air, Prongslet, My Strength, Mouldy-Shorts and Oblivion. There, Oblivion. Harry wondered what this door was. It was black where the others were honey coloured and had Avada Kedavra streaks mixed with a deep crimson, the colour of blood where the others had streaks of chestnut.

Standing next to it he felt an uncontrollable anger and an overwhelming malice. He shivered. His question was answered. He would stake his firebolt on the guess that this was Voldemort's link to him. He was surprised and concerned at the speed it had assimilated itself to his new mind set up.

Putting it out of his mind, he started thinking about defences. He wanted strong but subtle defences no one would notice and therefore, wouldn't target. His element was fire. Suddenly a design started half forming in his mind. He closed his eyes and reached into the fire. Pinching his fingers, he subconsciously pulled them out and moved them in patterns in the air.

After a few minutes of concentration, he opened his eyes again and looked. In front of him was a woven strip of fire. He could see strange curves that looked to him like runes, but he had never learnt runes.

Still following his instincts, he touched the two top corners and pushed it into place over the doorway marked, 'Castle in the Air', holding it in place with another four runes.

After completing the fire shapes over all six doors, he could see that the doors were now covered with three different designs. 'Prongslet', 'My Strength' and 'Castles in the Air', had the same design, 'Durzkaban' and 'Mouldy-Shorts' were covered in another and the last type covered the new black door. This one had very angular runes that sparkled fiercely.

Obeying an inner command, he touched the fiery threads over each door and felt for his magic, channelling it through his fingers as though they were a wand. Once he had done all of them, he noticed they had changed colours. His memories of his parents had a serene blue, 'My Strength' a turquoise, 'Castles in the Air' a very yellowy green, Durzkaban a deep orange and 'Oblivion' a dark vermillion. He guessed that the colours signified the type of memories held inside.

Now he turned his attention to his outer defences. He decided to have an outer layer of useless thoughts, a Trojan horse as it were, lulling the legimens into a false sense of security. Inside that, he would have a thick layer of woven fire filled with traps. As he considered his ideas, he decided to also have a fake shield over the top of his fake thoughts; most people would expect him to have received the basics in occlumency.

With this plan in mind, he started weaving again. Soon, an intricate cloth took form. It was filled with runes both offensive and defensive. Harry filled this cloth with magic so it sparkled and burned like a white hot heart of the fire. He pushed it up and it wrapped itself around the room. For the layer of false thoughts, he sent out a call for useless, outdated info, stuff everyone knew. Coloured thoughts came zooming towards him. None were worse than a light orange, or better than a blue-green. With a deftness he didn't know he had, he grabbed them and plaited them into a rope.

This rope went outside the shield of fire, twisting and turning like a snake trying to slough its skin. Now he constructed a weak, badly made shield of fire. He made sure there were plenty of knots, holes and broken or fraying ends and didn't add any runes. Now he pushed it outside his rope of thoughts and sank back down to the ground. He felt even more exhausted than he had before; the magic filled wards had taken a huge amount out of him, more than the memories had and that was saying a lot.

Feeling satisfied with his defences, he drifted off back into sleep.

Severus entered the study, 22 hours after he had entered it first with Harry. He scanned the boys mind, but was surprised at the information he had got. His tendril had sent back confused messages of half-done, finished shields that were at once badly made and deliberate. Deciding that a deeper probe would be considered active legilimency and would therefore break his promise, he decided to wait until Harry was awake to quiz him on it.

Settling down at the desk, he took out quill and parchment to write a report on the experiment just completed. Its purpose was to alleviate magical exhaustion in small children. Dozens of cases every year died or became squibs because they had performed too much magic in too little time. Usually it was caused by a strong emotion that got out of control. Sometimes children might spend too much healing power on a beloved pet, parent or friend. Unfortunately the cases were becoming more frequent with the war happening. Without training, the magic was undirected, therefore very wasteful, and something that would merely leave a trained healer slightly tired out and hungry, would kill a child. The potion that he was developing would give the child's magical core a burst of energy to stimulate quick replenishing and stop the child's system from collapsing. If they weren't got past this dangerous point, their magical channels would collapse, either blocking them forever, thereby turning the child into a squib, or at worst, stop the flow of energy around the body, killing them.

Another illness attached to magical exhaustion was magical shock. The sudden loss of energy often caused the child to lose consciousness. When someone did this, there was little hope for them. The only cure was a strong, sharp pain. Actually, this was why the Cruciatus curse was created. Nothing else worked properly, although there had been some success with the magical lightning bolts. These unfortunately often got out of hand, killing the patient and often the caster as well.

Funny how all the inforgivables were made to help people. The Cruciatus for magical shock, the Avada Kedavra as a clean, painless death for animals in an abattoir, and the Imperius to get people to get over their phobias. It was only when they were used by dark wizards to torture, kill and control that they were feared. The ministry, in its usual subtle approach, banned the use completely instead of just monitoring who used them and why.

Lost in these musings, Severus failed to see the tell tale twitches and movements of Harry's body. Harry quickly stood up, regained his balance and crept up behind his teacher. Touching his shoulder, he said cheerily,

"Good morning Professor." Severus jumped, his wand out of its holder and in his hand before Harry could blink. He cursed himself inwardly for allowing Harry surprise him like that.

"Don't _do_ that Potter!" he barked. Harry visibly flinched and looked down. Severus' tone immediately calmed.

"Sorry sir. I thought you'd hear." Came the apology. There stretched and awkward silence between the pair. Severus broke it by clearing his throat.

"So what have you done then?" Harry grinned.

"Would you like to take a look?" Severus raised an eyebrow.

"Are you inviting me to legilimise you?" Harry nodded. "Alright then. Legilimens."

He felt some barriers up ahead. Approaching with caution, he scoffed as soon as they hove into view. The shield was very badly made. The boy had obviously done a very shoddy job on it. It was full of holes, loose ends and badly tied knots. Passing it with contempt, he looked into the memories proper. Tch, they were as badly organised as before! Potter had obviously been wasting his time!

He exited Potter's mind. The boy was grinning. Well, he would see about that! Arrogant Potter, just like his father.

"I have never seen such shoddy work Potter. Even a beginner legimens could have passed them with no trouble. I hope you intend to work on them. The Dark Lord would laugh at that pitiful attempt!" the infernal boy was still smiling! Maybe it just wasn't getting into his thick head how awful his defences were. He opened his mouth to speak, but Potter beat him to it.

"Try again professor." About to pour insults on the hapless idiot, he hesitated. His instincts were telling him that something was wrong, and as a spy, he had learned to trust his instincts.

Shouting out the incantation, he clawed his way through the memories, looking for dark experiences. There was the ceremony with Voldemort's resurrection. There was the memory of ripper and the tree. Here was one of Harry weeding the front garden, Dursley shouting at him, cooking dinner. Severus' search became frenzied. Where was the abuse? The information on the Order of the Phoenix? The prophecy?

A growing suspicion was forming. He dived deeper into the centre of Harry's mind. Finally he found what he was looking for. A shimmering wall of fire. Examining it closely, he could see that it was woven with individual threads of flame…and wasn't that a rune there? And there? Suddenly, he saw them everywhere. Both offensive and defensive. Severus had taken runes to NEWT level, and even he didn't recognise all of them.

Gazing at the wall, he could see that a weak attacking mind would probably be permanently damaged and he doubted that even the Dark Lord would be able to get past it without a customised potion or spell. He certainly couldn't! it would take a very strong legilimens hours even knowing all the runes used and their counter marks, not withstanding the magical energy needed and Harry pushing at them all the time. Severus Snape was indisputably impressed.

He withdrew for a second time. Harry was looking expectantly at his expressionless face. He took a deep breath.

"Well Harry,… I have to say I compliment you on your shields. You successfully confused me with the outer shield and memories. By the way, where did you get the idea for runes in your shield?"

"I don't know. That fire was woven by my subconscious. I just closed my eyes and let it take over." Severus surveyed him, thoughtfully tapping his chin with a tapering long finger. If this was true, the boy was a natural occlumens. Interesting. Maybe he should try teaching the boy basic legilimency. It was not his forte, but he wasn't bad.

"Have you ever read anything about runes? Never looked at Miss Granger's textbooks?"

"No sir. She would occasionally talk about her class, but nothing particularly detailed."

_The mystery deepens_. Severus thought. He had never heard of someone suddenly becoming a rune master without any prior training. Add to that the list of other things to teach the boy in the week and a half until Albus got back. The headmaster would be pleased. Hopefully this time he would train the boy instead of trying to preserve his non-existent innocence and keep him ignorant. The child was destined to fight Voldemort for Merlin's sake! He had a mind link to the Dark Lord and saw Voldemort's actions when he was experiencing strong emotions. He had lived in a abusive home for over fourteen years. He had no innocence. But the headmaster could never be brought to realise this.

Severus started. He realised he was sounding like Black! The mutt had continually argued to tell Harry more. Funnily enough, he was now agreeing with his worst enemy over the child he used to hate. _Kill me now. I'm sure hell has just frozen over_. He thought.

Harry was still watching him. He strode out of the room robes billowing, signalling Harry to follow him. Entering the library, he perused the book shelves. Finally finding a purple-spined book and a green-spined one, he laid them on a table and beckoned Harry closer.

"This is a beginner's guide to runes." He said indicating the purple one. "All the rune books have purple spines. The deeper the colour, the more advanced level it is. Start with this one. Read and memorise it. Practice drawing each rune until you could draw them in your sleep. Then move onto the next one. I will remove my protection charms from them, but don't try and touch any others." He indicated the green book. "Now this one is a beginner's guide on legilimency. Read it and memorise it. I will quiz you on it and then teach you the practical once you are past chapter three. That should keep you occupied until dinner. Any questions?" Harry looked thoughtful for a moment.

"Legilimency sir?" Severus nodded.

"Yes. You seem to be a natural at occlumency. I am interested to see whether this extends to other mind magics. Anything else?"

"No sir."

"Good. Go to the kitchen and get something to eat. You need to replenish the energy used in your occlumency. I wish you to be at dinner tonight to test you on what you have learned so far."

"Yes sir"

"If you need to find me, I will be in my office or lab I would prefer you call for Toppy if there is a problem whilst I am making a potion."

"Yes sir, I mean Severus."

Severus appraised the boy silently for a moment. His replies had been short and hurried. His fingers were twitching and he looked as though ready to jump into action at the slightest sound. Impatient youth. No wonder his potions were so bad.

He held the books out to Harry and left to the sound of pages being hurriedly turned as eager eyes read secrets of hidden knowledge.


	12. Chapter 12

Sorry this has taken so long to come up. For half term I was out of reach of any sort of technology apart from mobiles. This meant I couldn't type the chapter up. When I got home, I typed up about half, then hit homework. You see, every day I have an hour period which I spend in my bedroom watching my rat as she runs around. If I've got homework that doesn't need the internet I do that, if not I type up the chapter. Lately, I've had to be doing homework. Hope you enjoy the chapter. Thanks for all the reviews, but perhaps, if you've got a question about any of my fics, you could put in some way to contact you?

By the way, **bold** is parseltongue. The snake uses extended s sounds.

Harry read up to chapter five of the rune book all in one go before he became aware of his extreme hunger. Reading the rune book was like refreshing already known knowledge. Almost as if he had learnt the information within the yellow pages and was just revising for a test.

The hunger pangs grew insistent. Taking the book with him, he walked down to the kitchens. Making himself a sandwich, he wandered outside. It was a beautiful day, shame to waste it indoors. Besides, he doubted Severus would be very pleased with him eating in the library. There was a gnarled old oak by a small brook. Harry sat against the trunk and opened the rune's cover once more.

He had finished his sandwich and only read another chapter, when he heard a slithering sound.

**"A**** new two legss. Ssmellss interessting."** A light voice said. Harry turned his head and saw an adder slithering from behind the tree trunk.** "It doessn't run. I wonder what it iss thinking?"**

"**I was thinking that I would like to ask your name." **the snake lifted its head and blinked, the filmy material sliding quickly over its eyes.

"**A ssnake sspeaker! Well well, I haven't met one of those before. I hear taless of one who ussess dark sspellss. I do not have a name. ssnakess don't." **It said a little sadly.

"**Are you male or female?"**

"**Male."**

"**What about Zak?"**

"**Zak, Sszzak. Yess, that will do well."** Zak hissed in satisfaction.

"**Do you live in this garden?"**

**"Y****ess young one. For three ssummerss I have lived here. I often ssee the other two legged outsside. He gatherss plants. I keep out of hiss way. I hatched here and fought my brood matess to remain here. I sshall likely die and leave my boness buried here." **

"**That sounds depressing."** Zak gave the snake equivalent of a shrug.

"**It iss life young hatchling." **

Harry decided he didn't want to debate philosophical topics and turned back to his book. Zak slithered completely into the open, tasting the air as he went. He moved to Harry's side. When lying next to the boy's elbow, he raised his head and part of his body off the ground.

"**What sstrange markingss you two leggerss make." He commented looking at the page.**

"**They're words. They tell us knowledge."**

"**You do not inherit knowledge?"**

"**What do you mean?"**

"**Well, when ssnakess hatch, an archive of knowledge openss up. The deedss of every adder ssince the beginning of time are kept there. I think all sspeciess of ssnake have their own, but we all sshare the memoriess of the beginning. You have never heard of thiss?"**

"**No. I haven't really talked to a snake properly before. I found out I was a snake speaker only a few years ago. I spoke briefly to a boa constrictor, and a magic snake, and I heard a basilisk hissing in the walls, but otherwise, no." **the snake sounded very agitated when he next spoke.

"**You mean you don't know anything about ssnakess? Or being a ssnake sspeaker?"**

"**No. being a snake speaker is considered the mark of evil in the magical world. Is there more than just being able to talk to snakes?"**

"**Of coursse! It meanss you can usse parsseltongue sspellss and I think you can access the archivess of ssnake knowledge," **Zak nodded as he said this.

"**What are parseltongue spells?"**

"**They are sspellss casst in parsseltongue. Bindingss, injuriess or wardss caussed by parsel magic can only be undone by a ssnake sspeaker."**

"**Then why doesn't Voldemort use them?"**

"**He may not know."**

"**Nagini is a snake though and he talks to Nagini."**

"**S****she iss a python. Only viperss know of parssel magic."**

"**Why?"**

"**I do not know. Maybe becausse vipersss have a sstronger ssensse of jusstice becaussse of their poissson. **

Harry nodded thoughtfully before returning to his book.

"**Sso what do those marksss mean?"**

"**Well two leggers don't have your archives, so knowledge is written on parchment. This 'book' is about runes."**

"**Runess, runesss, that ssoundss familiar. I can't think why though. Get back to you later. Another factor of being a ssnake sspeaker is the loyalty of unpledged ssnakess."**

"**What do you mean?**

"**Well,"** Zak hissed, arranging himself to be more comfortable. This involved crawling into Harry's lap, lying half on the book, half on his leg to get the warmth. **"In our sshared archivess, the oldest memoriess are of the firsst of our sspeciess. We, like most other beings were once types of fissh. We crawled on land, lost our finss and developed the ssensess we have now. We were dumb, mindless, no better or more intelligent than any otherss.**

**One day, a being came running from the foresst. He glowed green, the green of summer leaves. He wasss clutching hiss sside from where ssilver blood poured. Gasssping, he fell near where our ancesstor lay. The ssnake felt pity for the magical creature and bit him near the wound. Hiss venom was a clotting chemical that caused death when clotss formed in the heart, but in thiss casse, it only travelled as far as the wound was deep.**

**Though the tide of blood was sstemmed, the being wass very weak. My ancesstor helped him get better by bringing him healing herbsss, and lending him sstrength. **

**In gratitude, the being gifted uss with hiss language, he of the foresst gave uss the ssound of dry, russtling leaves and the sslither of our bodiess through the undergrowth. He gave uss the archive and enhanced our mindss. In return, our ancestor sswore loyalty to him and his desscendantss. The oath has been passed down in our blood to all thosse who sspeak our language."**

Harry was silent for a few minutes digesting the new information. It was a lot to take in.

"**So I'm a descendant of this being?"**

"**Yess."**

"**Why haven't any others in my family been snake speakers then?"**

"**You are a magical desscendant. It is a power not passed through blood but through power levelss."**

"**Why isn't Dumbledore one then?"**

"**Who iss thiss 'dumbledore'?"**

"**One of the most powerful wizards alive. He is the only one Voldemort has ever been afraid of."** Harry announced proudly.

"**It musst be hiss mind sset. The gift is only passed to those who are willing to usse it. You ssee, with thesse ssort of giftss, anyone with the right power can tap into them. But to sstart with, the persson musst be willing to usse the gift and accept it. You ssay being a ssnake sspeaker is bad in your world? Maybe thiss 'dumbledore' was never willing to usse the gift if he had it, so it never developed."** Harry mused over the implications of his gift. It was still quite alien to him for Dumbledore to be wrong; for his first four years he had been the pillar of light that ruled the school through kindness. Now… he still seemed kind to Harry's jaded gaze, but not all knowing anymore. A thought suddenly struck him.

"**You say that snakes have loyalty to snake speakers."**

"**Yess."**

"**Would that mean me or Voldemort?"**

"**We give our loyalty to the firsst ssnake sspeaker we meet perssonally. If we never meet one, we sshall not give our loyalty to anyone."**

"**So if I wanted to have the help of snakes, I would have to go around chatting with all the snakes I could find."**

"**Yess."**

"**Damn. I don't have either the time or security to do that."** Harry sighed sadly and opened his mouth to say something, but a bell rang before he could.

"**I have to go in for food. Do you want to come?"** the snake tilted his head on one side, then hissed a yes and wound himself around the boy's wrist. Harry closed the book and stood up.

Severus glared at Harry as he entered the dining room.

"You are very nearly late Potter."

"Sorry. I was outside." Severus accepted his apology and they set to eating.

Halfway through the midday meal, his eyes were drawn to Harry's gently moving sleeve. Frowning slightly, he looked more closely and so saw the triangular head with a flickering forked tongue emerge. As the snake slithered further out, he could see the distinctive dark, bruised markings showing this to be a common garden adder, also known as the only native poisonous snake in the British Isles.

His heart thumped unevenly and skipped a beat at the boy-who-lived's proximity to the dangerous reptile, but breathed again once he remembered the boy was a parseltongue. Besides, surely even _he_ wouldn't be oblivious enough to miss a large snake in his sleeve.

"Harry," he started in a conversational tone. "Would you care to explain just _why_ you have an adder tucked away in your clothing?" the infernal child _grinned! _He picked the snake up and coiled him around his neck.

"This is Zak. We met outside and had a very interesting conversation"

"I see. You did not think of informing me before you brought…him… in the house, especially to the dinner table?" Harry's grin faltered.

"Well, I though as the head of Slytherin… besides, I was wondering if you'd notice."

"One does not be a successful spy by being unobservant." Snape replied loftily. "What do you intend to do with… Zak?" Harry shrugged and hissed at the snake. Zak hissed back.

"He says he was just interested at seeing the inside of a two legger, I mean human, house. He'll stay outside tonight." Severus nodded.

"So how far did you get with your studies?"

By the end of the meal, Severus was pleased with the progress Harry had made. He had quizzed his student on what his inner defences were as well as what he had learnt that morning. If the boy continued at this rate, they would be able to get to the practical parts of runes the next day. After that it would just be duelling, more occlumency, more runes, legilimency, and other magic.


	13. Chapter 13

_A/N sorry for the long wait. Life was just catching up. I have given you two chapters, although the second is a little short. The next one might be ready before next Wednesday. If it's not, you'll have to wait until at least after Easter, if not longer. I have some big, future deciding exams coming up, and I'm afraid that fanfiction is not my priority. Hope to see you soon._

"Lemon drop?" Severus rolled his eyes at the inevitable offer and gave the usual reply.

"No thank you. Honestly Albus, I don't see why you like these Muggle sweets so much."

"They have a delightful sweetness about them mixed with a slight tartness. But I didn't call you here to talk about sweets. What happened at the Dursley home? My wards informed me Harry had left." Severus eyed him.

"What do you know of the boy's home life?" Albus' twinkle dimmed.

"Not much." He admitted. "I knew his family were never very happy about taking him in. I hoped Petunia would be kind to him for her sister's sake." Severus slammed a hand down on the table.

"You never thought to check on him when he was younger old man?" Albus was taken slightly aback.

"I sent you, didn't I?"

"Yes, but not until his godfather had died. During the critical years of a child's development, you left him without anyone watching."

"Mrs Figg was there. Did you find something wrong?" Severus checked himself from shouting and took a deep breath.

"That squib. You know she's near useless! There's another thing. Why did you send me off to check on him and then disappear along with most of the Hogwarts staff?"

"Well, you're always saying how Harry must have a pampered home life. I thought you would be able to cope with him if this was the case."

"And you believed me? Albus don't expect me to put any credit in that. I've been saying you should expel him for years and you've never listened to me. You expected different this time?" Severus' tone was questioning.

"You taught him occlumency for a few months. Surely you saw something in his memories of his home life." He pointed out. Sighing, he looked down at his clasped fingers. "Never mind…. What was it like?" the potion's professor pinched the skin between his eyebrows. In a very controlled voice, he responded to the headmaster.

"I found your 'saviour' lying at the side of a country lane near surrey. He had sustained fatal injuries from a car." The spark in Albus' eyes died completely. He leaned forward.

"You were hopefully able to heal him?"

"Yes, but in the process, came across some older injuries." Severus gripped the armrests of his chair. "Do you know what your decision to place Harry with his relatives has cost him?" Albus looked down at his hands.

"By the tone of your voice, nothing good."

"No. from his malnutrition and state of mind, Harry has sustained abuse for his entire stay at the Dursley's. From the age of his scars, I suspect that he only started getting beaten around the age of nine or ten. Of course, his internal magic might have healed such injuries, but even magic leaves a trace. Even so, I suspect that the mental abuse goes far deeper. Since he has been staying at my manor, he has had at least nine nightmares. He has been at my home for two weeks. After a contretemps a couple of nights in, I found what he was dreaming about. He feels guilty for the deaths of Black, Diggory and even his parents. He feels he caused their deaths, sometimes just by existing. If this isn't a by product of his relatives blaming everything that went wrong on him I don't know what is. I suspect that the reason he never excelled at school work is because his 'family'" Severus spat this word out with disgust "always made him feel worthless. After all, both his parents were high achievers and he certainly doesn't lack the core strength. Look at his patronus. He managed to achieve something at thirteen that many wizards never achieve. Harry has needed help for years. Did you know that he can still remember his parents' deaths? He hears their last words every time a dementor comes near." As every word heaped on him, the headmaster looked older and more defeated. He closed his eyes, then looked back up at the teacher.

"Is he broken? Can he be saved?" Severus looked at him, a slight tinge of disgust in his eyes. He suspected that only half the old man was concerned and sorry about his decision about putting Harry with the Dursleys. The other half was just wondering whether his weapon was damaged beyond repair. Severus was one of the few still alive who knew the sorting hat had tried to put eleven year old Albus Dumbledore in Slytherin.

It had been an accident, this knowledge. Albus had taught the young Snape occlumency, but he had shown an aptitude for legilimency as well. Severus had been having his weekly lesson when it happened. For the past week, he had ruminated over the theory that a legilimens' barriers were weakened when they were attacking. Severus had thought that if he could keep his own barriers up to a decent standard, he might be able to foil the legilimency attack by being an antagonist. After all, in chess, the offense is the best defence.

Putting his plan into practice had been easy enough. Severus had skimmed through a few memories, not wanting to intrude into his mentor's privacy, rather to see how long he could go before being detected. Suddenly, his interest was caught by one particular thing.

**Flash back**

"Dumbledore, Albus." A small auburn haired boy sat nervously on the sorting stool and saw his world darken as the hat was placed on his head.

"_What have we here? Manipulating, always assessing a situation to see what the best outcome for you would be. Yet you have great bravery and all that goes out the window if a friend is in danger. Above all, there is a great thirst for learning, maybe more for the power of knowledge rather than just learning for learning's sake. There is a fair bit of ambition here too. You fit many categories young Albus. You would do very well in Slytherin."_

"_I don't want to be in Slytherin."_

"_Why not?"_

"_Slytherin has a bad reputation. It would not fit my future plans. Besides, what is a snake but someone who walks among other animals? I would like to be in either Gryffindor or Ravenclaw. Again, Hufflepuff wouldn't suit me. Too many are prejudiced against that house."_

"_Interesting point. Very well. You do not have quite the temperament for Gryffindor. Better be _RAVENCLAW."

**End flashback**

Severus had been so stunned by the information that he had lost all pretence to secrecy. Albus had found him soon after and had asked him quietly to keep the information secret. Around him had been an aura of power that frightened Severus. He had watched the man's manipulations for years, admiring the skill he showed with an eye that only another true Slytherin had. In answer to his question, Severus decided to take pity on him.

"Yes, he can be saved I think. I am already making progress in that respect. He has shown an aptitude for occlumency, the proper procedure. And that's another thing. I was under the impression that you had given him lessons before he came to me last year. Imagine my surprise when Harry tells me that he never got any such thing from you. Care to explain that?" he raised one brow, his tone slightly insolent. Albus sighed again.

"Severus, I hoped you would have worked this out. When you didn't come to me soon after the lessons began, I thought you had reasoned it out yourself. Surely it was obvious he had never received any instruction as soon as you entered his mind?"

"Potter never paid attention to anything he was taught." Severus snapped. "How was I to know this was any different? Besides, that sort of memory was not what I was looking for."

"What were you looking for then?" asked the headmaster gently. When no reply came, but Severus turned slightly pink, he shook his head seriously and his tone was tinged with disappointment. "I had hope Severus that you could get along with Harry without trying to humiliate him all the time. Was it too much to ask?"

"Of course it was! You know my opinion of Potter. Why would you think…" Severus stopped and smirked darkly. "Clever Albus. You almost got me off track there. Almost. You should be careful when trying to manipulate other Slytherins. Could you answer my question now?"

"I've already basically answered it. I hoped you would be able to get past your hate and see it from his perspective for once. Maybe that was too much to ask."

"It was the way you tried to deal with it. Remember, manipulations on other manipulators usually go wrong. Either they notice or they act in a completely different way than you were expecting." A silence ensued while they both digested what they'd been told.

"You mentioned something about Harry achieving an occlumency shield?"

"Yes. I guided him into the trance required and he worked out what to do. He seems to have an affinity with runes. His shield is amazing. I think even you would have trouble getting past it. He has built defensive and offensive runes into the inner defence. As well as this he seems to have a deceptive outer shield and outer ring of memories. I must admit. They baffled me for a moment or two." He down played his own reaction. No point in admitting to something not necessary. "He also made an interesting discovery when he talked to a snake in my back yard. Apparently there is something called parselmagic. Anything cast in parseltongue is only able to be undone by a parselmouth. The problem is that he can't go straight from Latin to parseltongue. He has to find the way a snake would describe the action and then translate that. There has been a fair amount of progress, despite the errors." The twinkle was back full force. Severus remembered an incident not that long ago caused by the problem of translation

**Flash back**

"_**Get out of my way."**__ Harry hissed, putting all his frustrations into the spell. A jet of red light shot out and hit the dummy. Said dummy flew back into the wall. An explosion threw both Harry and Severus back to hit the opposite wall. They fell to the floor, hard. Getting painfully up, they saw a hole through the thought indestructible wall. Harry pointed his wand._

"_Reparo." Nothing happened. "Aw damn." He whined. Why couldn't something be easy for once? "__**Repair yourself**__." He hissed. Nothing happened. "__**Go back to how you once were**__." He tried, and then yelped as a wave of molten lava slowly slid towards him. "__**Be a stone wall again!**__" he hissed hastily. To both his and Severus' relief, the wave stopped, slid backwards and formed itself into a solid grey patch, glowing for a moment and then dulling. Not the blocks of stone it once was, but at least it was a wall. _

_Harry turned to find he was being given Snape's level 12 death glare, the kind that says 'I want to carve out your eyes with my potion's stirrer, use them in a poison and then feed it to you. After that, I will play a game of charades depicting what other tortures I will visit on you. (1) He gulped._

"_Sorry?"_

**End flashback**

"May I see him? I can tell you two have got much closer. It is good for the both of you." Severus ignored most of this.

"If you wish to come to my manor, we'll go through the floo. The password is 'Serpent's Tongue'" Albus nodded and gestured to the younger wizard to precede him.

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Harry got hungry. He closed his book and glanced at the still sleeping Zak coiled on the desk. Going in search of some food, he went out of the library. As he crossed the entrance hall, the fire glowed green. Harry spotted the signs of floo travel and stopped to greet the visitor; it probably was either Severus or the headmaster. A familiar blond haired figure stepped gracefully out. Harry was frozen in panic at the sight of the white devil.

"Potter!" Lucius Malfoy snarled, he had a bone to pick with this particular teenager. Because of him, he had spent two weeks in that hell hole named Azkaban. If he hadn't used the contacts he had built up over many years, he'd still be there. As it was, his usefulness was waning to his Master with the loss of his reputation. The prize of Potter would buoy his falling prestige fantastically well. With this thought, he raised his wand to point at the boy. "Stupefy." Harry rolled out of the way and raised his own wand.

"Expelliarmus!" he cast back. Malfoy shielded himself.

This continued for a few moments, the spells never getting fatal, but they were harder and faster as time moved on. Finally, the duel was finished when Harry, keeping all his attention on his opponent instead of also being aware of his surroundings, tripped over a chair leg. His wand flew out of his hand and Malfoy was quick to take advantage. Within moments, Harry was bound and gagged. Malfoy walked over sneering at him.

"Well well, Harry Potter. The Dark Lord will be very pleased with me. You really should look where you're going. Stupefy." Harry's world was swallowed in darkness.

A/N I hope you enjoyed that and found elements of it amusing; I did. If you're reading this for the second time, sorry the extra bit wasn't there the first time. I must have either completely skimmed over it, or maybe I just lost the sheet.

(1) This is in reference to a Blackadder episode where he is captured by the Spanish Inquisition and since he doesn't speak Spanish, nor does the Spaniard speak English, they end up communicating through charades as to what will happen if he admits to being a witch, or if he continues to deny it. I love Blackadder!


	14. Chapter 14

A/N Sorry, this one's much shorter than I normally do; only 864 words long. This is just the best place to stop.

"Harry?" Severus shouted as soon as he landed in his entrance hall. The mansion was quiet, too quiet. Albus arrived as he called for Toppy.

"Yes master Severus?"

"Where is Harry?" he asked the little green elf.

"Master Harry is not here." Came the reply.

"What? Where is he then?"

"Toppy doesn't know master. Toppy was in the kitchen when the wards informed him other master had floo'd out with the other man."

"He floo'd out? With who?" Severus asked with growing unease.

"Mr Lucius Malfoy master." He could only gape at his house elf with horror. The knowledge that the wizarding world's saviour was in the hands of one of the Dark Lord's most trusted lieutenants was enough to freeze the spy to the spot. Albus laid a hand that was at the same time comforting and restraining on his shoulder.

"What do we do?" he whispered to his mentor. Albus sighed.

"There is nothing. Attacking with force at Malfoy Manor would only put Harry in danger. We don't even know that is where he is. Our only consolation is that Tom will wish to display his victory over his enemy in public. He will likely call for his death eater soon. You must go and see if you can get him out. Even if that means the loss of your spy position, we can't afford to loose Harry." Severus nodded and went to pace in his office, for the first time in years he had been eager for the dark mark to burn.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Harry woke, a metallic taste in his mouth. He looked around, and was seized by panic. He was blind! No, thank goodness. It was just dark. There was light shining under the door. Dim light, but there nonetheless. The room was small Harry saw as his eyes adjusted to the darkness. It was scarcely bigger than his cupboard at the Dursley's, although a lot taller; he could stand up in here. The door was locked and made of a sturdy wood that Harry had no chance of damaging.

He closed his eyes again, piecing together his memories. Lucius Malfoy. This meant he would soon be in the clutches of Voldemort, if he was not already. Whimpering, he curled up. He could be facing the snake-faced sadist once again, this time without wand, port key or backup. All the knowledge he had learnt in the past two weeks seemed useless against the epitome of evil and his crowd of dark sycophants.

Wait! Severus had said his occlumency was good. That meant it was at least as strong as the professor's own. Voldemort had never got past Severus' shields, at least, not to his knowledge. Maybe he would be able to keep his important thoughts locked up. There was no way he wanted the dark lord to know of either the prophecy or Snape's true allegiances.

With this in mind, Harry retreated back to his shields to strengthen them as much as he could.

Harry didn't know how long it was until Malfoy came back, but he was resting, sleeping off the effort used in his mind shields. A key clanked in the lock and a foot kicked at his ribs.

"Get up Potter. The Dark Lord is waiting." Came the sneering, hateful voice.

Harry got shakily to his feet and was immediately bound in chains. A wand tip poked itself between his shoulder blades, a very clear message to move.

The wand prodded him up several flights of stairs and along many corridors, the decorations increasing in grandeur and expense the higher he got. Finally, they finished in front of a pair of doors. Lucius waved his wand and the doors shot open with a bang.

Straight in front of them was Voldemort on his throne-like chair. Malfoy shoved Harry forward hard enough to send him to his knees, unable to catch himself with his bound wrists. He then bowed to his lord with a flourish. Voldemort looked from the kneeling boy to the blonde haired man.

"Well done my faithful servant. I think we need to spread the word. Wormtail!" Pettigrew crept forward, flinching as Voldemort grabbed his arm and pressed his mark. Harry snarled at his parents' betrayer. Sometimes he hated the rat more than Voldemort; at least Voldemort had had an excuse. Normally, Harry would be writhing in pain from the scar, but his new occlumency barriers kept out all but the occasional twinge.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

_Please don't kill me for the cliffie, the next one's much longer, I promise. I will endeavour to have the next one out soon, but you might have to wait a week or two. Depends on the amount of time I have to play with. Reviews are much appreciated!_


	15. Chapter 15

_A/N Hello again. I hope you all had a good Easter. Mine was full of studies although I was allowed the Easter weekend off. The chapter as promised._

_**Word**- this is supposed to be in Latin but isn't. This is because one, I can't find a free translation site and I'm not paying to translate fanfiction and two, I find it really annoying when I'm reading a fic and it has something in another language which only has a translation at the end. I have to either interrupt the flow and zoom down to the end of the page or just ignore it. Anyway, I find it annoying and I'm sure a lot of you do as well._

_Now for the warning, I keep forgetting to put them on._

_Warning: torture scene. I can't judge how bad. It is quite explicit._

Soon, pops were heard outside and black cloaked, white masked figures filed in. when the hall was almost full, Voldemort spoke.

"Good evening my followers. A great blow has been struck for the dark side by one Lucius Malfoy. Lucius, approach me."

The only death eater without a mask came forward. As this was his home, there was no reason for him to hide his face inside the mansion.

"My lord." He bowed low, and then straightened.

"Today, Lucius captured Harry Potter. He hangs there in chains." As he pointed to Harry, another death eater burst through the door.

"Severus. You are late." Hissed the dark lord, greatly displeased.

"I apologize, my lord. I was in a meeting with the muggle lover."

"Crucio." The spell was held for thirty seconds whilst Severus writhed. Harry closed his eyes and tried to ignore the sounds of the man he had come to respect being tortured.

"I hope you will not incur my displeasure again by being late Severus, otherwise I may be looking for another Potions Master. Understand?"

"Yes My Lord."

"Good now you may have missed this fact, but your enemy is chained yonder. Lucius, as this came about by your actions, you are entitled to a reward. Ask."

"My Lord," started Malfoy, his voice dripping grease. "Nothing could compare to your presence. All rewards pale into insignificance beside you."

"Is that your final word? You do not want anything else?"

"No my lord. The only reward that would be worth anything to me would be to spend more time with you." Voldemort's next words showed his pleasure in this grovelling answer.

"Very well. You shall become my right hand man, my second in command. No other death eater will have command over you. Does this satisfy you Lucius?" the aristocrat knelt before his Master and kissed his robe hems.

"It more than satisfies me My Lord. I…" They were interrupted by a gagging sound coming from the wall.

"Urgh. Can't you just kill me now? Honestly, I'm sure that merely listening to it is lowering my IQ. No wonder all your followers are either stupid or sadists. If I had to endure this frequently, the killing urge would rise in me too. Besides, I don't see what all this does for you. Maybe you have an inferiority complex that always needs reassuring." The death eaters were at first shocked, never before had a prisoner been so insulting. Normally it was pleading, sobbing, wordless snarls etc. Mostly that was because prisoners were usually already broken or at least tortured.

When the words had sunk in, Lucius Malfoy snarled and started to rise, wand clenched in his hand. He was stopped by a pale, spidery hand on his shoulder.

"Am I supposed to be offended by an opinion of an idiot and fool?" the dark lord asked silky smooth.

"I guess not. After all, if you did, there would be no one around, not even yourself. You'd have committed suicide long ago."

The death eaters collectively drew in a breath. Some of shock, others of anger. No one had dared speak thus to their lord and lived more than a few seconds. Severus cursed the boy mentally. Why did he always let his Gryffindor side loose in times of stress?

Harry could see many eyes glittering behind the masks. Maybe it had been a bad idea to enrage them, but if he was going down, he sure as hell wasn't going down without a fight and at the moment, words were all the weapons he had to battle with.

The Dark Lord didn't bother to reply to Harry's jibe. He just calmly and coolly muttered 'legilimens'

Harry felt his scar burning and the cold, dark and painful presence of his nemesis enter his mind. It tore through his fake shield and dived into his fake memories. There it lingered. Harry tried pushing Voldemort out but failed miserably. Even with his increased skill, he didn't stand a chance against the creature with more than fifty years of experience under his belt (not that he had a belt at present.)

Finally, when Voldemort had skimmed through most of the fake memories, he turned his attention inward. Soon he came upon the weave of fire. After studying it awhile, he decided he didn't have the time or patience to unravel the runes and decided on brute strength. Diving at it, he hit the mesh like a hammer.

A green globe surrounded him and he was suddenly writhing with pain the level of the Cruciatus. In fact, that's what it was. Harry had linked his fourth year experience into the particular area Voldemort had hit. Voldemort felt himself being thrown back into his body.

Onlookers watched as the boy-who-lived writhed, then stilled and seemed to pass his pain onto their master. Voldemort then went flying back several metres to land ungracefully on his backside.

The humiliated Dark Lord glared at Harry who had recovered from the intrusion, much heartened at the failure of the strongest legilimens he knew.

"You look as though something's turned you the wrong way up Voldy. What's got you _down_?" Harry giggled rather hysterically at the admittedly weak jibe." There was a horrified silence mixed with anticipation. Voldemort leapt to his feet snarling. Drawing his wand, he shouted a 'crucio' putting all his hatred and anger into the spell to punish the insolent, chained boy.

Harry's weak giggles turned to whimpers, transforming into screams that the lord drank up greedily. The agony curse was prolonged to over a minute. When Voldemort started to fear for the boy's sanity, he lifted the curse. After all, the torture had just started. It wouldn't do for him to go insane quite yet. Harry hung, tearing in great gasps of air.

"Anything to say, Potter?" Voldemort mocked. Harry didn't reply. "Thought not. Now, I have a few questions about… the Order of the Phoenix and the prophecy. First, where does the Order meet?" Harry raised his head laboriously and spat at Voldemort's feet.

"I'm no traitor! Do your worst, I'll never tell you willingly!" Voldemort chuckled slightly, the sound full of malice and evil.

"Oh good. I was _so_ hoping you would say that." He waved his wand and the chains holding Harry to the wall vanished. The boy dropped to the ground, heavily, the impact causing him to groan gently. "You have, over time, caused great inconvenience to most of my followers whether directly or indirectly. I think it is high time you paid back those debts in full." He waved the death eaters forward. "He's all yours my followers. My only limit is that at the end, he must be alive, sane and conscious." They all bowed to him and murmured 'thank you Master' as they glided forward.

One of the first to reach Harry was Malfoy. He used Crucio, waiting until Harry screamed before lifting the curse. While Harry lay panting, he got personal. Harry heard a crack and a blinding pain erupted in his leg. A moment later, the same happened to his other one. His mind slowly catching up, working through the pain, he realised the SOB had broken both legs, maybe even fractured them.

The other death eaters had reached them at this point. Soon, Harry couldn't tell whose curse had hit him. His bones were broken, healed and re-broken so many times by both physical and magical means, that Harry was almost getting used to the pain. All manner of dark curses hit him, boiling through skin, tearing off his flesh, bursting organs, gouging holes in him and many others. One of the worst was when he was put under the imperious. Normally he could resist even Voldemort's curse, but not now with his mind tattered and torn by the torture. He was made to humiliate himself many times for the sadists' entertainment. Time and time again, Harry reached for that numbing blackness on the edge of his vision. It taunted him with blessed unconsciousness as spells cast on him kept him awake. Light spells, twisted to suit this evil purpose.

Suddenly, black did cross his vision. It was Severus going over to the Dark Lord, bowing low as he went.

"Stop." Voldemort's serpentine voice cut through the noise like a knife. Harry rested, weakly drawing in breath as he listened. "Severus, do you not want a turn?"

"My Lord, my potions?"

"I will arrange for you to go through a cleansing ritual. Surely you want this chance against the son of your boyhood rival, the arrogant disruption of your potions class?"

"Yes my lord. But… I can't help but think that the most delicate potions may be ruined by this act, by the blood on my hands."

"And I am sure the cleansing ritual will absolve you of that blood. Are you questioning my knowledge of rituals? Does Lord Voldemort have gaps in his knowledge that are known by you Severus?" his voice was soft, smooth and as dangerous as a snake coiled to strike.

Harry saw the glint in Voldemort's eye and knew this was a test for Severus. It warmed him slightly that Severus was unwilling to torture him, willing to risk his spy position. This proved to him more that anything that the man really _had _changed. A stupid reason though. If Severus was caught, his only hope for escape would be gone. So Harry did the only thing he could. He struggled onto his side facing the two, looked Snape straight in the eye, moistened his throat as much as possible, and croaked out in a rough voice,

"Do your worst you greasy bastard. I always knew Dumbledore should never have trusted you! I'm glad I can tell you this now, you were an awful teacher. I swear I've learnt more about potions from _Neville_ than from you. Oh, don't worry about your potions. They'll be ruined anyway from the oil that constantly drops from your hair!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Severus looked at Harry, seeing the pleading in his eyes and steeling himself to refuse Voldemort. Hopefully he could activate the port key on his finger while touching Harry. He thought the pleading was to not cause the boy any more pain; that would probably what his reaction would be in Harry's place.

Thus, he was very surprised at Harry's words. They at first made him feel a little angry, but he soon realised the meaning behind them. Harry had recognised the test for what it was and was giving him permission, no, instructions to do as told. He was willing to sacrifice himself to keep the Order spy in place. Stupid boy. Stupid reckless _Gryffindor! _Brave child. Brave Slytherin in a lion suit.

He looked up at the Dark Lord and allowed his initial anger to cloud his face and his thoughts.

"Of course I do not question you master. I agree that the brat needs to be taught a lesson. I will relish this time to test a couple of my newest potions on him if the ritual will work. I do not wish to deprive you of the most delicate and purest brews."

"I assure you Severus, it will. Go and have your fun." Voldemort was mollified, his metaphorical hood lowering and settling. He was still sure of his control over the dark haired man.

Severus strode forwards, using the standard Crucio as he went. Harry writhed and screamed. Somewhere inside, a part of Severus broke; the part that Harry had touched and mended once. Next were a couple of hexes that flayed the skin off Harry's arm, Severus also cast a silent and invisible numbing charm, low powered; it had to be to slip under the radar. In the same place, he also cast a dark curse that would have made Harry feel as if needles were being shoved callously through him without the pain relief. Harry played along, yelling and twisting as though the pain was ten times what it was. Severus was grateful he had understood so well. The final step now.

"Petrificus totalus." A flick of the wand and Harry was still. Severus knelt down over the prone boy. "I have been waiting a long while for the ideal person to test these two potions. The first is supposed to slowly peel the skin off the victim, cauterising the wounds to stop infection, but causing great pain to the victim." He tipped a vial full of a thick, orange liquid down Harry's throat. Harry's skin bubbled and he screamed, an agonised cry that cut what little was still whole of Severus' heart. Severus swallowed the bile rising in his gullet and sternly re-lifted the barriers around the loveless organ.

"Hmm. Not quite the reaction I was aiming for. It needs more experimentation although the effects so far are interesting. What about this one? It is designed to magnify the effects of the Cruciatus curse, but stops the victim escaping into insanity." He tipped this one into Harry, a luminous thin brew that seemed to twinkle ominously. While his long flowing cloak hid his other hand briefly from view, he surreptitiously slipped a thin, transparent band onto Harry's finger, the port key. Casting the Cruciatus, he watched as coolly as he was able as Harry's cries reached new heights of agony. "Ah. That seems to have worked as expected." He turned and bowed to Voldemort. "I thank you my lord once again for that opportunity. Truly it feels good to express the depths of my hatred."

"Indeed Severus. I believe that someone once said, 'revenge is a dish best served cold'. This situation is so much better than the heat of battle. Don't you agree?"

"Yes My Lord."

"Good. Go and fetch a strong sleeping potion." Severus bowed again and stepped out of the room. As soon as he was out of range of those piercing red eyes, he cursed mentally. He had been about to activate the port key and take Harry away. Oh well, no point in dawdling. He might as well fetch the potion.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Harry was apprehensive. While Severus was out of the room, he felt all the eyes boring into his injured body. Blood dripped from numerous wounds, none of them fatal; those had been healed, but if he didn't get treatment soon, the blood loss could cause unconsciousness. Good.

He had played up the torture under Severus' wand, but there had been no need to play up the effect of the potions. He realised that it had all been a realistic act to slip the ring on. He suspected a port key but couldn't be sure.

There was the sound of soft footsteps and the rustle of a cloak. Severus had returned. Voldemort's high, cold voice spoke.

"While perusing some ancient tome, I came across this spell. It was called 'le cauchemar rouleau' or 'the nightmare coil'. It forces the victim to relive every nightmare they have ever had along with the memory that caused it. Usually, the repetition of such bad dreams causes madness, but leaves the memories free to be accessed by another. What better way to rid myself of this pest and get the information I want? I wonder, Harry Potter, how long you will last under the influence of this spell." He spat the last part out at Harry's prone figure which was rigid with horror. "**Follow the nightmare coil. Live through the fear. Strengthen or die**."

Voldemort strode forwards and forced the sleeping potion down Harry's throat. Harry had been frozen in the petrificus totalus, but he doubted he could have moved anyway. Suddenly, he felt a jerk at his navel. The ring was a port key. He thought drowsily as the potion started to take effect.

Arriving on a soft bed in a white room, he heard a woman's startled scream and the sound of his name being called as though from a great distance.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Severus hurried to his potion's lab, grabbed the blue vial off the shelf and rushed back to the throne room. He was unable to get within activating distance because as soon as he arrived, Voldemort started speaking. He finished by waving his wand and chanting a string of Latin words. Severus had taken the basics, but had never properly learnt the dead language. He cursed that oversight now. There never seemed enough time to learn everything he needed to know.

With a snap of fingers, Voldemort called Severus forward and took the potion from him. Without looking at the Potions Master, he uncorked the vial, gave it a cursory sniff and strode forwards. At last, Severus was in activating distance but he was now further frustrated by the dark lord's speed. Voldemort was touching Harry, stymieing Severus' attempts; he couldn't activate the port key and risk taking the dark lord with him.

Finally, the monster stood up, looking with triumph at the boy-who-lived succumbing to the potion. Severus couldn't miss this chance! Already the death eaters were trying to force him back to watch the show. He twisted the white stone on his ring, once to the left, once to the right and back to centre.

The port key activated and Harry disappeared. Voldemort stood stock still for a moment in surprise, then, whirling round to face his followers who automatically stumbled back a pace, shrieked at them.

"Who is the idiot who forgot to put up anti-port key wards?" his red eyes flashed and spat fire at them as ominous red sparks started tumbling from his wand tip. No one dared to suggest that the idiot was him. "Lucius!" Malfoy stepped hesitantly forward. "Crucio!" the curse was held for over a minute before being lifted, leaving a trembling, whimpering pile of robes and dirty blond hair lying on the stone floor of his own hall. "And what about the rest of you fools? Why did you do nothing?" the pain curse flew fast and thick. Everyone got cursed several times that evening.

When Voldemort had finally finished venting his fury, he stood panting and dismissed them. As soon as Severus was out of the anti-apparation wards, he apparated to Hogwart's gates, opened them, and dashed up to the hospital ward.

_A/N I apologise if the French was wrong. I do speak a fair bit of French, but that came from the dictionary._


	16. Chapter 16

Severus strode through the double doors of the infirmary. The white momentarily blinded him. Poppy was standing over a bed. Over her shoulder he could see matted black hair. He walked towards her.

"How is he?" Madame Pomfrey jumped before turning to face him.

"You gave me a fright Severus. He is stable, that is the best I can say. What happened?"

"I would rather tell you with Albus here. I don't want to tell this story more than once. Where is he?"

"In his office I think." Severus nodded and walked over to the fireplace. Taking a handful of floo powder, he knelt in front of the hearth and tossed it in. he stuck his head into the newly green flames and shouted, 'Headmaster's office.' The disorientating whirl ended with a floor level view of the right office. Albus was sitting in his chair and jumped up at the noise of floo travel.

"Severus!"

"Come down to the hospital wing Albus, you're going to want to know this." He withdrew his head as Albus nodded and grabbed the tail of Fawkes. Severus was just in time to see the flash of fire as the old man arrived in the infirmary.

"What happened, Severus?" Dumbledore asked, looking his age as he gazed sadly on Harry. Severus took a deep breath and started to explain.

"I felt the mark burn just after you left Albus. I quickly went to my office and grabbed that special port key you made me ages back that links with my ring. I got dressed in the black robes and apparated to Malfoy manor. I was a little late so was reprimanded and cursed. The Dark Lord was in a good mood and only held me under the Cruciatus for a few seconds

"You were crucio'd? Why didn't you tell me at once you infernal man? Honestly, some people and their stubbornness." Poppy scolded, pushing Severus onto a bed and summoning a murky yellow potion. "I know you well enough not to expect you to lie down, but I do expect you to remain sitting!"

"Stop fussing woman! It was only a few seconds, well, that time at least."

"You were cursed more? How many times?"

"I will tell you if you let me finish!" Poppy merely glared at him. Satisfied, Severus continued. "He drew my attention to Harry chained to the wall. He then said it was Lucius who had captured him and conferred upon the blond the honour of being the second in command. Of course, there was a lot of grovelling first. Harry," he sighed. "Harry started insulting both of them and basically being a Gryffindor. The dark lord legilimised him." The other two drew in a sharp breath. "But somehow, his shields stood. They even caused the Dark Lord pain. In the end, Harry pushed him out with such force, his corporal body flew back a few metres. Stupidly, Harry antagonised the darkest lord of the century again. He cursed the boy before vanishing his chains and," he winced, "setting loose the death eaters on him. As you know, Harry has annoyed most of them in the past and they were all very pleased to have the boy-who-lived at their mercy. The Dark Lord found it suspicious when I didn't take advantage of this chance, so he decided to test me." Dumbledore's eyes took on an urgent cast.

"Is your position revealed or did you manage to escape without suspicion?"

"Neither." Severus almost smirked but restrained himself. "I followed the Dark Lord's orders." Albus' eyes widened and Poppy whipped her head round to face him so fast he was surprised she didn't get whiplash. He sighed in almost pride. "Harry did the most Gryffindor Slytherin action I have ever come across. The Gryffindor part was offering himself up as a sacrifice to keep the order spy in place. The Slytherin half was in presenting it as a continuation of our old animosity by insulting me and telling me to 'do my worst'. Not only that, but he masterfully played up the pain I gave him, allowing me to give him less than I might have done. Unfortunately, I had to use the new potions I had… developed to reassure the Dark Lord and those were… designed to be… agonising." His mentor's eyes and expression showed some sympathy as he saw the difficulty Severus had had at this stage. "During this I was able to slip the ring you gave me on Harry's finger, but before I had an opportunity to activate it, the Dark Lord sent me out of the room to fetch a sleeping potion. I returned with it and gave it to him. That monster can move fast; I was unable to activate the port key until he had given Harry the potion and chanted a spell he called 'the nightmare coil'. Finally, I was able to start the port key and send him here. The Dark Lord was _not_ pleased and gave us all a few doses of Cruciatus. I got out and apparated to Hogwarts' gates."

His tale finished, Severus drank some water to wet his parched throat. Looking at Albus, he fended off Poppy's attempts to make him sit down.

"A worrying tale my boy. Nightmare coil…. It sounds vaguely familiar but I will have to check my books. How is Harry, Poppy?" the nurse sighed and shook her head.

"Almost every bone in his body has been broken at some point, some compound fractures. Some have been healed and that's almost worse. The death eaters who did this took no care in setting them first. I've had to re-break almost all of them. Add to that multiple Cruciatus as well as a whole range of curses I don't even recognise. There are a couple of potions messing things up too." Severus winced at his handiwork.

"How long until he's healed?"

"Albus, I wouldn't even consider letting him out of here for at least two weeks and that is a stretch. Also, we don't have a clue as to what his mental state is. Heaven knows what that spell he-who-must-not-be-named will do to him. People do not just walk away from this sort of torture. Harry will no doubt have nightmares and psychological scaring for years if not his lifetime." She sighed again. "Harry is going to need a lot of help and there isn't really anyone who cares for him enough now Sirius has gone" she thought for a moment. "Not that Sirius would have been the best choice anyway." She stated as an afterthought. "He never received treatment for the mental trauma of Azkaban. Being an escaped criminal does that to someone. I don't think he ever got over Pettigrew's betrayal and the subsequent deaths of his best friend and Lily either." She went melancholy for a few moments before giving herself a shake. "But that's all in the past. Now shoo. You need rest, and if you stay any longer, I'll make you sleep in here!" she chuckled silently to herself as the dour potion's master resembled a giant bat with all a bat's speed and agility in exiting with his robes swirling around him

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Severus paced in his office. His thoughts buzzed like hornets around his head, stinging him fiercely. They were definitely hornets because they had each stung him several times and hurt too much to be wasps.

Some condemned him for his part in Harry's torture. Others worried about how close he and Harry had been getting. Still more whispered that maybe Harry wouldn't like him any more. They had reached a point of friendship at least over the two weeks in Prince Manor.

Suddenly he stopped, folded his arms, scowled at the wall and spoke sharply as if to reprimand an errant potion's brewer.

"If I had refused to torture him, the Dark Lord would have killed me. What do I care about whether Harry Potter, Gryffindor's golden boy hates me. We hated each other mutually for five, happy, peaceful years. We can just go back to that and I won't need to think about it again." He paused to feel the freedom of the hornets a decision would give him. They carried on stinging. "Gar!" he snarled, throwing his arms out of their folds and resuming his pacing even more violently than before.

The floo turned green and Albus' stepped out. He stood, amused and worried, looking at the frustrated, oblivious man currently wearing a path in his carpet. It was rare he would catch his spy unawares, even more rare to do so in his private quarters.

"Severus." Snape stopped so suddenly, Dumbledore was certain he would fall over.

"What have you found out?" Albus sat down in one of the chairs.

"This spell forces the one it is cast on to relive every nightmare they have ever had. Despite this, it isn't dark magic." Severus started pacing again.

"I know all that! The Dark Lord said as much. Wait, it isn't dark magic? Why?"

"The book I have is the only known copy in the world. There are other books with the same knowledge, but never many in the same tome." Severus started tapping his wand in impatience. "If left alone, the victim will go mad, but in my book, it talked about a rite of manhood where an aspiring warrior would be subjected to it to help him over his fears. Someone would enter the trance with them and would guide them through their dreams. It was so useful that no one banned it. Over the years it gradually fell into disuse and was forgotten. This could be a blessing in disguise!" Severus looked at him as if he was mad or as if he had announced that Slytherin and Gryffindor fifth years were safe to have in a volatile potion's lab with numerous dangerous potions. Oh, wait, he had already done that.

"A blessing in disguise? What the hell do you mean you senile old man?" Dumbledore just twinkled at him.

"Well, you told me that Harry is plagued by nightmares. He won't come out of this trance until he has come to terms with the events that caused them, either acknowledging his true guilt, or seeing the idiocy in this false blame. He will come out stronger than ever and no longer doubting himself. Of course, he needs a guide." Severus collapsed into a chair opposite Dumbledore.

"Who?" the headmaster replied serenely.

"You of course. Who else?"


	17. Chapter 17

_Child abuse in this one. Yay, I remembered the warning!_

"Me?" Severus repeated in a bemused tone. "Why the hell should it be me?" he exploded. "Why not you, Minerva, someone who hasn't tortured him recently and who isn't a snarky, greasy git. I'm surely the worst person to choose, well, maybe the Dark Lord would beat me here, but still." With the explosion of noise had come an explosion of movement too. Throughout the tirade Albus had sat with his usual serene face.

"If you would let me explain, you will know. Time is short so _sit down_." The last was a sharp order. It was enough to startle Snape and he threw himself down again, glaring at his old mentor.

"Explain then headmaster. Why _does_ it have to be me?"

"Usually when this spell is cast, the guiding mind must enter their mind at the same time as the spell. If not, only someone who has already been in his mind, and," he seemed to struggle with himself. "And shares blood with the victim can help them." He closed his eyes, ready for the reaction. He didn't have long to wait.

"Shares blood! I hope you're not insinuating what I think you are Dumbledore! What. Did. You. Mean? No lies, half-truths, whatever you call them or riddles old man. Explain!" Albus winced and opened his eyes to see Severus' dark ones flashing with anger but also a well hidden fear and dawning horror.

"Very well. Put plainly, you are Harry's biological father. You are also the only one who fits the requirements to help him." Severus opened his mouth to speak but only a strangled noise escaped. He swallowed and tried again.

"How?" it was hoarse, barely above a whisper.

"There is no time to explain now, nor would I tell you without Harry present unless it was absolutely necessary. When you go into the trance and meet him, I ask you not to mention it."

"You seem very certain that I will help you." Severus said bitterly.

"My boy, would you leave your only son to waste away, going through something worse than death and thereby destroying our only hope of defeating Voldemort, as a result freeing the wizarding world, and you by default, from his clutches?" his voice was reproachful and his face was such that any but the most hardened would feel guilt and be reduced to begging within minutes of his disappointed demeanour. "You are the only one. Petunia his only other blood relative is not capable of performing the necessary legilimency, and I am not of his blood. Nor is any other legilimency user in this entire world except for Voldemort. Somehow, I doubt he would agree to help."

"I'm sure he would. How about we write a letter. 'Dear dark lord, funny really. We need your assistance to save your mortal enemy from the spell you cast on him which will make him stronger than ever.' Yes, that will go down well." He was verging on hysterical. It had been a trying night. Dumbledore was slightly disturbed. It was unlike the unemotional man to break down in this way.

He summoned a calming potion from Severus' private store and coaxed Severus to take it. Surprisingly quickly, the draught took effect and Severus was himself again. He rubbed his neck and sighed. 'Damn Albus. He can always guilt me into things.'

"Fine. What do I do?" Albus beamed.

"You enter Harry's mind and get his shields to recognise you as his helper. Don't worry, these shields will be augmented by the shields from the spell and will be able to identify you. From there, you find where he is in his mind, which is where your blood relation comes in I think, guide him through his nightmares showing him where his true fault lies and basically being a calm, comforting presence. Remember, each nightmare must be dealt with separately and laid completely to rest before either of you can exit."

"How long will it take?"

"It depends on how successful you are at convincing him. The shortest was recorded to be one and a half days. The longest was six months."

"Six _months_? Will you survive that long?"

"I'm going to set up a time shield. The strongest I would feel safe doing is four times outside speed. Anything more than that and it might get unstable. I tell you so you don't get startled by a blue shield when you wake up." He stood up and led the way out of the private rooms and back to the infirmary. Madame Pomfrey had moved a bed closer to Harry's and the two were almost touching. Severus lay on his side on the crisp, starched sheets. He tilted Harry's head towards him and opened his unseeing eyes. Casting the charm, he dived into the emerald pools.

Directly in front of him was the fire mesh, but strangely, it was intertwined with strands of purple. A couple of those strands broke away and twisted towards him. He let them feel his intentions and felt their acceptance. The other purple veins pulled apart a hole in the fire mesh, just big enough to let him through. Once past, he looked back and saw no damage to the shield. To the left was a dark cloud, no doubt the curse. To the right was another ball of fire mesh, obviously Harry's inner mind. Flowing in front of him from the fire to the cloud was a luminous, brightly coloured stream; more like a rainbow except the colours were all mixed up. Behind him was another, similar stream, but the colours were less vibrant and it flowed in the opposite direction.

Severus guessed that the streams were memories that were being used in the spell and so, with every nightmare they went through, they diminished in potency. Probably, if no one guided the person through the experience, the memories would continue circling and finally run out of energy, signifying the person's death or insanity.

He deduced that Harry would either be in his inner mind or the dark cloud. He doubted that he would be able to gain access to the child's inner mind so decided to try the dark cloud first. As a result, he started to follow the brighter stream. As it went into the cloud, it flowed under a low, black archway. Severus could see no way to get past this obstacle except by entering the stream.

Gingerly, he stepped into the strange liquid. The colours started swarming up his leg, making him nervous. Following a strange impulse, he took the small knife he always carried in his pocket and cut himself, letting a few drops fall in the stream. The colours immediately calmed down and he waded deeper. The greens, blues and purples felt soothing to his bare skin, but the reds, oranges and yellows stung slightly, very mild but enough to be annoying.

He waded in to his waist, and then continued forwards. Immediately after entering the archway, he could see nothing; not himself, not the 'water', nor where he was going next. He could still feel though and, for the first time, was thankful for the slight pains.

Suddenly, the darkness cleared like mist or fog and he could see again. A starved black haired, green eyed boy was pressed against a cupboard door, his eyes wide in fear. Towering over him, a portly man stood shouting at him. As Severus watched, the purple faced monster raised a hand and backhanded the child across the face. The force of the blow sent Harry to his knees where he remained, cowering from his abuser. No doubt this was a memory or nightmare. Most likely a memory that had added to a nightmare. Severus recognised the big man as Vernon Dursley, Harry's uncle. Looking around, he saw another black haired boy huddled against a wall of the darkness, this one bigger and slightly less starved looking. This was who Severus had come for. He slowly walked to the ball and lowered himself down to sit beside the child.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

As Severus went limp, Albus pushed pillows behind him and under his head to keep him upright. This sort of trance meant the thinnest possible connection to the body so he needed to be well supported. He wished Severus luck and stepped away.

Taking out a glowing white chalk, he drew a circle around the two beds. At the north, south, east and west he drew an hourglass shape and placed a time turner on its side in each of the shapes. Connecting the hourglasses, he drew a line of continuous runes just outside the original line. Placing his wand on the southernmost point, he chanted a string of Latin.

"**Time passes, progress is made. By the speed of the compass points may this circle accelerate. Within the boundary may the time be faster until the occupants are ready to rejoin our state. Progress is made, time passes**."

A blue dome snapped up above and around the beds. Gazing sadly at his two 'boys', Dumbledore left the hospital wing, that small prisoner of Pandora's box fluttering in his breast. Hope, all that was left to the besieged wizarding.


	18. Chapter 18

The scene dissolved, the two surrounded by blackness once more. Severus couldn't see a thing, not even his own hand as he held it two inches from his face. Suddenly he heard a horribly familiar voice shouting.

"Lily, take Harry and go! It's him! Go! Run! I'll hold him off!" there was the sound of someone stumbling and the blackness drifted apart like smoke. The scene before him was fuzzy, as if seen by someone short-sighted. He saw a red haired woman dashing into a cream and gold decorated room, holding a child. Only one woman could make his heart leap. Lily. She placed the baby gently into the cradle, stooping to kiss him tenderly on the forehead, hugging him tight. The room was obviously a nursery with all manner of toys.

The bit of attention that had wandered was brought back to Lily as she drew runes of fire in the air, chanting quietly in an unknown language as she did.

The shut door burst open just as the fire faded. Lily jumped in front of the cradle as the red eyed, dark haired Tom Riddle, aka lord Voldemort entered, his wand at the ready.

"Your husband is dead. I have no desire for your life, only that of your son's. Stand aside and lord Voldemort will spare you."

"Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!" Lily's eyes burned with a mothers love, even while tears of desperation and pain at her loved one's death ran down her cheeks.

"Stand aside you silly girl…. Stand aside now." The dark lord's voice was sharp with impatience.

"Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead." She pleaded.

"Avada Kedavra." A flash of green light filled the room, quickly followed by a corresponding white light around Harry's crib.

Severus' heart tore once more as the body of his only love fell to the ground with a dull thud. Harry's face was streaming with tears. No matter how much he had come to terms with the fact that they were dead, seeing it happen was completely different. Voldemort looked at the corpse dispassionately. He then raised his wand, pointed it at the infant and almost lazily said

"_Death of the father links with death of the son. Death energy will make immortal one_. Avada Kedavra."

The curse hit the shield of runes which flared up with a blinding white light, repelling the dark magic back at its caster at many times its original speed. The green light hit Voldemort whose body dissolved as a dark shadow was released. The spirit drifted towards the cradle, but when it touched the still glowing shield, it let out an inhuman howl of pain and a magical backlash drove it away, destroying the house in the process.

The memory faded away and was replaced by a peaceful park. A fifteen year old Harry was sitting on a park bench watching the children play under the sun and blue skies. Suddenly, clouds of black and red covered the blue. The children screamed as they were hit by jets of green and red lights.

Voldemort strode forwards with Lucius Malfoy and Peter Pettigrew behind him, identical sneers on their faces. Harry jumped up and pointed his wand at Voldemort crying, 'expelliarmus' as the snake faced man hissed out his favourite curse. The green and red met each other mid air and formed a golden beam, just like in the graveyard.

Continuing the similarities, two shadows emerged from Voldemort's wand. James and Lily Potter. They drifted over to Lucius and Wormtail and possessed them. The death eaters' faces changed into the Potters' features. They stepped forwards, eerie in the death eaters' pointed hoods.

"We died because of you." Intoned James.

"I know." Whispered Harry.

Severus looked around and saw the real Harry sitting at the base of a tree. He walked closer.

"Harry." The boy looked up at him and the nightmare froze as if paused.

"Professor Snape." Harry said warily. Severus inwardly sighed. No doubt he had had a few nightmares about the torture. He was back to almost square one. "Why are you here?"

"I have come to help you accept the things that are causing you nightmares so that you can wake up." Seeing Harry's mouth open as if to speak, he quickly continued. "Why do you think that you are responsible for your parents' deaths?" Harry looked bewildered.

"Well, if I wasn't there, if that prophecy hadn't been made about me, they would still be alive."

"Did you raise the wand that killed them then?"

"No but-"

"Did you force your mother to stand in front of Voldemort? You heard him; she would have been left alive if she hadn't chosen to block Voldemort."

"But she wouldn't have had to make the choice if I wasn't there." Severus sighed in exasperation.

"Only one thing in life is certain; you will die. I knew Lily and I can tell you that she would have preferred to die in a way that allowed you to live rather than get run over by a muggle car or something else as pointless. I don't know if you noticed, but the runes she drew in fire were designed to be activated by a sacrificial life. She _meant_ to die for you. I somehow think that she would be hurt and angry to see you mourning her death." He forced out a chuckle. "And you don't want to see Lily in a temper when you die. She could be scarier than Voldemort ever was. With Voldemort, you know it will be torture and then death. Lily, well, she was the one that convinced Albus that there are worse things than death." Harry's eyes sparkled.

"You knew my mother?"

"Yes."

"Could you tell me about her please? I don't know anything about her except that she was the same year as Dad, in Gryffindor and only started going out with him 'when he deflated his head a bit' in seventh year."

"That's all?" Severus was shocked. "Then yes, I will tell you, but now, let's get on with these dreams."


	19. Chapter 19

_A/N sorry this has taken so long. My life has been busy lately. I meant to type this during October and managed, but whether it is posted on the 31st depends on how soon I can get to a computer with internet, and what time zone you are in. hope you enjoy it and please review to tell me what you think!_

Severus dealt with the deaths of Sirius and James in the same way. He managed to convince Harry that they had died the way they wanted; young and fighting the dark.

Cedric was different. The memory/nightmare was stuck on the Hufflepuff's dead, sightless eyes staring up at Harry.

"He shouldn't have died." Harry said sadly.

"No. he shouldn't have. He was young and had a prosperous future ahead of him."

"I know. If only I hadn't told him to take the cup with me.." Severus sighed. His patience was running thin with going over the same _bloody_ thing every time.

"Harry, do you really want to mock the man's memory like that?" Harry looked up at him, confused. "You are implying that Cedric was an idiot who couldn't act without orders. Do you really think that if Cedric hadn't wanted to take the cup, you would have been able to make him?"

"But he didn't know it was a portkey!" Harry's face was earnest. He was determined to blame himself.

"Oh! I understand now. You were really in cahoots with the dark lord. Perhaps you had got an owl bearing the dark mark saying 'please touch the cup. It is a portkey. Much obliged to you.' I see. You then decided that it would be fun to take Cedric along for the ride." Harry frowned at him.

"You know that's not true. I had no idea that the cup was a portkey."

"Exactly!" Severus said triumphantly. "_You didn't know!_ Tell me why you consider yourself responsible, taking into account the fact that you didn't force Cedric to take the cup and you didn't know it was a portkey."

"If- if I hadn't been there, he would have survived." Harry's voice was anguished.

"If you weren't there, the Dark Lord would have killed him and no one would have known of his death. His family would still be clinging on to false hope that he was somehow alive. At least you brought back his body and they were able to say goodbye at the burial." Severus replied bluntly.

The memory of the end of the tri-wizard tournament was run through, lingering over the conversation in the maze and with Cedric's shade. Finally, the memory lightened and dispersed in a glowing white light as the others had done. Severus breathed out in relief. Now there was one person to go; Vernon Dursley.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Worthless freak. No one loves you. Weak, unable to defend yourself against a weapon-less muggle…."

"Stop there Harry." Severus' voice cut through the scornful, contempt filled tones of the purple faced man. The scene froze.

"Why do you think you are worthless?" Harry looked down.

"Well, um, no one wants me. My only use is to kill Voldemort and look at what a great job I've done so far." He laughed bitterly.

"What do you mean?

"Well, Voldemort's alive, got a body, has an army and is going around killing people with no opposition."

"Hold right there. If it wasn't for you and your mother, we would probably all be dead or the Dark Lord's slaves. Because you stopped him when you were a baby, his plans were set back tremendously. As for your first year, he would have risen four years ago if you hadn't stopped him. The same would have happened in your second year, the memory would have gained a body and then searched out the master spirit, merged with him and then the dark lord would have the body of his sixteen year old self. Forgive the shudder that fills me at this prospect. Even if he did rise in your fourth year, what could you have done? You were able to escape bringing back Cedric's body and warn us about his rise. It was the fault of the minister who refused to believe you that the Dark Lord was able to build up an army. Plus you stopped him from listening to the full prophecy, both in the department of mysteries, and in your unfortunate incarceration which led to this. You have faced the Dark Lord six times and escaped, not only with your life, but also relatively unscathed. What is this telling you?" Harry had been slowly blushing with embarrassment.

"Yeah, but I had loads of help with all of that!"

"Of course you did. Every one does. No one does anything without help, whether that help is physical or mental doesn't matter. Your childhood and experiences shape who you are. They could be counted as help if they make you choose right."

"You don't." the words were said quietly but Severus was able to hear in the silence.

"I do. I have the memories of your mother and my mother to get me through my depression, I have the support of Dumbledore and several members of staff. Trust me, I have and need help and so do you." Harry nodded, seemingly slightly reassured. "Now, why do you say no one wants you? The Weasley family loves you as one of their own; Granger is your friend and cares about you. Your teachers are always singing your praises. Albus cares about you as though you were a grandson. I," he gulped "care about you." There went his reputation. "Those are just the people you know of. I wonder how many of the public are on your side. That Quibbler article helped convince many, and now the Dark Lord has shown himself, many feel the Daily Prophet has treated you badly. As for weak, why do you feel that?"

"Well, you've seen from my memories, I'm a wizard prophesized to get rid of Voldemort, yet I can't even defend myself against my muggle uncle." Severus rolled his eyes.

"Until you were eleven, you didn't even know you were a wizard. When you next came back from Hogwarts, you couldn't use magic unless you wanted to be expelled. Add to this the fact that Dursley is three times your size, more so when you were younger. He also has greater strength on his side, not to mention control over food and living supplies. You are not weak Harry. Many would have broken under the treatment you had. Think of the Dark Lord. He went to a muggle orphanage and may not have had all the food he could eat, but I doubt he was systematically abused. Look at what he became."

"But how am I to defeat Voldemort if I can't protect myself from a muggle?"

"You are a powerful wizard. You managed the patronus charm at thirteen. Many adults cannot do it now. You are good at duelling, have an uncanny skill at runes and have an advantage in the knowledge of parselmagic. Against an opponent where you can use magic, you'll do fine."

Harry slipped down the wall and hugged his knees to his chest. His face twisted in anguish as he whispered so low Severus could hardly hear.

"But what if I can't. Whenever someone moves quickly near me, I flinch. If a hand is raised, even for an innocent purpose, I cringe. You saw what happened when you shouted at me that first morning. I had a _panic attack_ at a raised voice. How the _hell_ am I supposed to beat an insane, intelligent, megalomaniac with _fifty_ years more experience than me when I'm just a scared, cowardly, abused, little _boy_!" his voice had risen to a shouting pitch by the end.

Severus sighed again. It seemed he had been doing that a lot lately. He slid down to join Harry on the floor.

"Harry, you are the most obstinate person I have ever met. You seem to have taken the donkey trait from both parents and amalgamated it into the mother of all stubbornness. You cling on to the low opinion of your aunt and uncle as though you were a barnacle. Look at the facts. You are a Gryffindor, a house reputed to be the place of the brave."

"Wormtail was in Gryffindor."

"There are bad lots in every house."

"Maybe I'm a 'bad lot'." Severus felt like pounding his head against the wall. Actually no, that would just give him a head ache. No, what he should do is pound _Potter's_ head against the wall to knock some sense into him.

"As I said earlier, you have faced the dark lord six times and survived all, a feat which is surpassed only by Albus Dumbledore. You do not lack bravery; in fact, I think you have too much when you combine it with your impulsive nature. Scared, well aren't we all when faced with torture and death? We would be fools to go into a battle without fear. Fear sharpens the senses and stimulates adrenalin which could save your life. All you need to do is to not give in to your fear. Abused, yes, but that is no shame to you. It is shameful to the Dursleys who vented their anger on an innocent child, ruining your childhood. I, myself was a victim to abuse. I took years to get over it." He ignored Harry's surprised look. "As for the Dark Lord, he might be intelligent, but Albus Dumbledore at least matches him even if he is slightly less devious. His insanity gives him an edge at present; it allows him to commit acts that would horrify a sane person, but it may someday lead him to make a grievous error that gives us the advantage. Now, do you hear and understand?" Harry stuttered out,

"Y-yes."

"Do you believe?"

"I-I think so."

"Have some confidence man. Do you believe?"

"Yes!" this came out firmly and the nightmare faded into glowing white light.

XXXXXX

The light didn't halt as the others had done, grow dim. No, in fact it seemed to grow brighter, burning away the thick, black fog. Severus looked at Harry, he was glowing.

Harry was feeling a weight lift from his chest as if a huge anvil with hammer attached was being removed. He closed his eyes, luxuriating in the weightless feel. He didn't notice anything until he was seized in a hug and heard Severus shouting triumphantly,

"You did it Harry!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

As Harry glowed, Severus saw the fog thin to mist, then disappear completely, revealing the plain beyond.

Seized in a grip of exultation, he grabbed his son into a tight hug, telling him what he had done.

Harry opened his eyes and looked at him in confusion. Severus let go and cleared his throat.

"We need to get out of here. Take my hand. You need to believe you are flying and pulling me along with you. This is your mind; anything is possible. We need to fly to your eyes, through them and into my mind. From there I will push you out and back into your conscious mind." Harry nodded and closed his eyes again.

He concentrated hard and suddenly, they were in the air. They flew towards two large, circular panels of glass. They were opaque white with an inside ring of opaque green and an empty circle where the pupil would be. Flying through, Severus took over the flight and directions. He followed the colourful line of his thoughts back to his own mind and they passed through the obsidian eyes.

As soon as Severus had got in, he pushed Harry out, raising his own defences as he did so. He sat up and looked at the teen over in the other bed.

Harry followed Severus' guidance once out of his eyes, entered black eyes and saw nothing before getting pushed out. He let the momentum carry him back to his own mind. Once there, he felt control of limbs come back to him and sat up, meeting Severus' gaze. They shared a smile of triumph before collapsing back on their individual beds, exhausted.


	20. Chapter 20

Albus came slowly into the hospital wing for his daily visit. His face was even more lined than usual. There had been a new killing; the McAllistairs, a family of staunch light supporters. The whole family had been brutally murdered, even old 'grandpa' Peter. His wife Marie, their two grown up children visiting for the day; Katie and her husband Daniel with their baby daughter, and the newly wed Christopher and Janice. All tortured, killed and the dark mark shot over their house. They were all purebloods except for Daniel, whose father had been a muggle. Their crime had been talking too loud. Peter had stood up in the Wizgamot yesterday and recommended standing up against, 'this upstart that calls himself Lord Voldemort.' He had continued with an inspiring speech about how though one wizard might break like a splinter, if all who were for Justice and The Right stood together, they would form an unbreakable wand that would be an unbeatable weapon in the hands of the Good.

Brave, inspiring, but completely _Gryffindor_. Albus had been in Ravenclaw, but he had always admired the red and gold house. This make him likely to overlook their foibles, but sometimes their mistaken, foolish courage was force fed to him. This was one of those times. Voldemort wouldn't stand for such blatant defiance and this was the result. Their only chance against the dark was the bright light that was Harry Potter, the chosen one in the prophecy. So thinking, he looked at the beds. The same as yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that. He felt his heart sink yet again. He had hoped there would be something soon. It had been five days on the outside. That meant almost three weeks inside the speeded shield.

Wait, was that a movement? Surely Severus' hand had been on his chest? It was now sitting on his face. Severus sat up, the movement blurred as the figure inside the shield moved four times faster than the rest of the world. Albus dashed forwards, waving his wand as he did to take down the shield. The blue shimmered and collapsed, then fell with the sound of tinkling glass.

"Wait Severus." Dumbledore said as Severus made to get up. He took a vial filled with a green, sparkling substance out of his pocket. "You've been in a trance for almost three weeks by the shield's standards without any sustenance or liquid apart from a sustaining spell woven into the shield. Madame Pomfrey will have my head if I don't give you this super strength nutritional potion before you try moving." Severus nodded and downed the potion. Harry stirred and Albus went over to him to repeat the process.

"Well, I must go." Said Albus, his eyes twinkling. "Poppy will want to know you're awake."

"Wait one moment Albus. She'll probably come soon enough. Why don't you reveal whatever it was you couldn't tell me alone." Albus' eyes dimmed slightly and Harry looked at them in confusion.

"Severus my boy, do you really think now is the best time?"

"Yes." Albus sighed and sat on the end of Severus' bed.

"Very well. I suppose I should have told you a long time ago anyway."

"I suspect that neither of you want me to tiptoe around the subject, so I will be unusually blunt. Harry, you are not James Potter's son. You are, in fact, Severus' progeny." Harry was speechless. He looked at Severus, no, his father, but the man's face was unreadable. Harry worried that perhaps this could be because he didn't want his son to be the arrogant brat he had hated for years. Or maybe it was his unfortunate habit of killing those he had a bond with. No, he shouldn't think like that, Severus would be annoyed if he did after all their hard work in his mind.

Severus must have sensed something was wrong. He reached out and took Harry's hand.

"Don't worry Harry. I'm delighted to be a father, especially _your_ father. This news is just a shock." They turned back to Albus who had replaced the twinkle in his eyes. "So tell us headmaster, how is this possible?"

"Lily went out with Severus in seventh year, but they broke up. I don't know why." He looked at Severus with a question in his eyes. The potions master sighed and cast his mind back to that painful time.

"It was in March, two months before the exams." Severus started hoarsely. "I had just had a visit from my father, he wasn't a death eater, but liked the Dark Lord's ideas. He told me I had to become a death eater and spouted all sorts of muggle-hating ideas. I repeated my conversation to Lily. She misunderstood me. She thought I shared those views and just objected to doing what my father wanted. We didn't get along you see. She broke up with me and ran back to the Gryffindor common room crying. After that, she wouldn't listen to me. She would ignore me and I couldn't get her in private to explain. Two weeks later, it was the half term. I went home and my father forced me to take the mark. He was like your uncle, except he used magic as he was a wizard. I didn't know the Dark Lord's service was for life at that point. I decided it would be the lesser of two evils between getting beaten to death or spending a few years in the Dark Lord's army.

With that foolish mistake, I lost anything I might have had with Lily. She accidentally caught sight of the mark during transfiguration; Black had set my sleeve on fire and it burnt away the cloth. Just a glimpse, but even that was enough. She cornered me after the lesson and spat out that she never wanted to see me again. The next day, she was on Potter's arm. I don't know how you could be my son." They both looked to Dumbledore who took up the thread.

"Lily and Severus had had a couple of intimate…um… _situations_ while they were still going out. She found that she was pregnant a month after she broke up with your father. She didn't want the baby to be born nameless so cast an old charm which freezes activity in the womb. It would be dangerous for more than a few years, but that was enough. She got married to James Potter soon after graduation and had you a year later." Harry drank to wet his suddenly dry mouth.

"Did-did my father, I mean James Potter, know?"

"Yes, she told him a month before you were born."

"If Severus is my father, why do I look so much like James?" Albus chuckled and conjured a mirror.

"I think you'll agree with me that you don't." Harry took the mirror and gasped. His hair was almost straight with only the barest hint of waves, and jet black instead of the dark brown of James Potter. His mouth was slightly thinner too. He scowled and pushed the mirror away in shock. He had looked the image of Snape! The changes were subtle, but noticeable. One thing that remained unchanged was his eyes, cheek bones and nose. They were from Lily and Lily alone. He looked back up at the headmaster.

"Ok, I believe you. I have several questions though." The headmaster gestured for him to continue. "Why did I look so much like James Potter for most of my life?"

"James adopted you by magic in a ritual Lily did. It made you his legitimate son so you will be able to access the family vaults when you are seventeen and gave you the ability to take on his appearance. When you were a baby, you apparently liked to switch features between your original father's and your adopted. Lily was a charms mistress and cast a charm that froze your features when you looked like James. When Severus came into your mind, his magic added to yours burst the charm, of course, being a part of the ritual even if it was an invisible part had something to do with it. It released both features and any latent talents. You might find potions a little easier now, after all, potion making is a talent that runs in the Snape family." His eyes twinkled at the both of them.

"How do you know all this?"

"When Lily heard the prophecy, she had a premonition that she wouldn't survive Voldemort's attack, so came and told me the whole story in the hopes that someone would know the truth. She also wondered whether it affected the prophecy."

"Does it?"

"No. Sorry." Harry sighed

"Thought not."

"Harry, the prophecy says, 'born to those who have thrice defied him,' not 'born of those who have thrice defied him.'" Silence descended.

"What does this mean for us?" Harry looked at Dumbledore but his question was directed to his father.

"What do you mean?" Severus entered the conversation once more.

"Are we going to acknowledge I am Severus' son, or am I going to continue pretending to being a Potter?" Dumbledore replied before Severus could.

"Harry, you _are_ a Potter by magic. I don't think it would be wise to inform people of your parentage until Voldemort is dead. Apart from the fact that it would increase Severus' already high danger level, the wizarding world has, as a whole, a very medieval view of birth within marriage to the father" both Severus and Harry saw the sense in this and nodded.

Madame Pomfrey came bustling in. she froze for a moment when she saw that the two patients who had been dead asleep when she left, were now sitting up and chatting with Albus.

"Albus!" she reproved the headmaster. "You should have told me straight away once they woke up. Have you even given them the potions?" the headmaster chuckled.

"I told you she would tell me off if I didn't tell her immediately you woke. Yes Poppy, that was the first thing I did."

"How long have they been awake?" demanded the irate mediwitch.

"Uh, about half an hour Madame Pomfrey." Answered Harry, looking at the clock in the infirmary. He was quite surprised they had been talking that long.

"Right, that's quite long enough. You need to take a normal nutrition potion and go back to sleep. You won't even think about getting up for at least a day." She said fiercely, turning a stern eye on both, especially Severus. The man always tried to get out early, and often, to her annoyance, succeeded. They were the two most frequent patients in her infirmary. "No excuses or complaints. Headmaster, I would appreciate it if you left now. You can come back tomorrow, but now, my patients need to sleep. The headmaster twinkled at the helpless pair as they succumbed to the mediwitch's medical ministrations.


	21. Chapter 21

Harry and Severus were reluctantly released after a day, in time for breakfast. They walked carefully down the corridors towards the great hall. Their bodies were still very unsteady after their inactivity for three weeks. The two were silently rejoicing being out in the real world once more.

When they entered the great hall, Severus was unpleasantly surprised to see the entire faculty, barring Trelawney, in attendance. The staff only resided simultaneously at Hogwarts during the summer holidays if there was an emergency. The hall was also ominously quiet; the morning post had just arrived. Severus sat in his normal place with Harry next to him. Dumbledore passed the newspaper he had without a word.

_You-know-who strikes again!_

_Diagon alley devastated!_

_For the past five days, you-know-who has been targeting any who oppose him, but yesterday evening, he changed tactics. In a surprise attack by over forty masked death eaters, the historic wizarding shopping centre was destroyed. Many well known shops were damaged or even reduced to rubble. Flourish and Blotts and Fortescues were two of the most badly hit. Over fifty people were killed and many times that injured by the death eaters or the falling buildings._

_The minister still denies that this is the work of he-who-must-not-be-named, insisting that these attacks are merely terrorists using the old death eater costume. He makes a statement for the daily prophet about the attacks:_

_"The ministry is working tirelessly as we speak, restoring shops and houses. We apologise for the broken families, but are almost sure we know who the culprits are. Once we are certain, we will use force to bring them to justice."_

_The public already know the culprits; you-know-who is back as Harry Potter has been saying for the past year. Where is the boy-who-lived? What is the chosen one doing to help us?_

Harry dropped the paper. He looked straight at Dumbledore.

"What has been happening, head master?" Albus dropped his eyes and sighed.

"For the past five days there has been an attack per day. All have been on families supporting the light; the Diggorys, the Smiths, the Finnigans, and the McAllistars. Now Diagon alley. There have been more attacks on muggles. It seems Voldemort has declared a free for all on them. There have been attacks from groups and individuals. With each new blow, he has swayed more and more people to his side.

Harry's eyes were cold as he reviewed the new information.

"Right. That's it. I'm going to fight Voldemort." Severus gaped for a moment and then cast muffliato around the three before finding his voice.

"Are you mad? You don't know anything about him. He has had over 50 years to perfect his skills whereas you have had less than six. You idiot, he would kill you and all our hope would be lost!" his face was white in fear. Harry, however, replied, determined.

"I don't care. I can't sit here with all these deaths going on. If I don't do anything, they will be my fault." Severus groaned in exasperation, but before he could reply, Albus cut in.

"I believe that Harry is the only one to have a chance of destroying Voldemort forever. Let us finish breakfast, then go up to my office to discuss the whys and wherefores of this situation. Bereft of a choice, Severus gave a curt nod and Harry murmured an affirmative.

The three stood up together at the subdued table. Breakfast had been a hunger less affair. Even though Severus and Harry hadn't touched true food in weeks, the news of Voldemort's attacks had taken their appetite. They walked to Dumbledore's office.

"Refreshers" the headmaster said to the gargoyle. It slid aside and they stood on the moving, spiral staircase. Opening the door, Albus led the way into the office proper. It was all neat and tidy. Harry felt rather guilty, remembering the last time he had been in here and had single handedly destroyed most of the twirling silver instruments on the desk. Dumbledore sat down and gestured for them to do the same. When they had, he leaned back and tented his fingers.

"After many years of researching rituals of immortality, I think I have found the one Voldemort used. It ties in with the murder of your family, Harry, and why the Avada Kedavra gave you a scar instead of killing you." Harry interrupted.

"We know why I survived the killing curse; my mother made a shield using runes which reflected the spell." Albus shook his head.

"No, that's why you lived. If the rune shield had performed to its full potential, you would have had a 50:50 chance of survival, but you would have been severely injured and a squib. What Voldemort was using was an old two part spell that involves the murder of two close family members; father and son, mother and daughter or godparent and godchild. Before killing the two an incantation must be recited and between the deaths, there must be no killing of the same sex, so your mother's death would not have interrupted the ritual.

The spell rips the magic from the victims. The first is the most important; it renders the caster's _soul_ immortal. If the caster is struck with a mortal blow, they become little more than a free soul, less than a ghost; in short, what Voldemort was when you first met him at Hogwarts, Harry. The death of the second victim, usually the son, renders the caster's _body_ immortal. They develop the ability to absorb magic, therefore making themselves stronger at every spell cast. There is no part of the ritual which makes the mind immortal; we are not meant for immortality and every case documented that completed both parts went insane after a few centuries and killed themselves; the magic gained requires fairly regular purification rituals because since most used the magic of enemies, it was constantly fighting against them. Without the purification, it rebelled against the immortals." Both Harry's and Severus' eyes were filled with horror at the thought of an immortal, omnipotent, (more) insane dark lord.

"Thank goodness you were not a Potter by blood Harry." Dumbledore continued. "Voldemort invoked the ritual and killed James Potter. He then turned to you. As he wished to become invincible by magical means he used Avada Kedavra. The spell did not complete the ritual as there was no blood connecting you and James. If Lily had not shielded you, you would have died from the curse, and though Voldemort would not have been invincible, he would have kept his body. The wizarding world would probably have fallen to him, allowing him time to find an alternate method of gaining immortality. The shield saved the day. It reflected the curse back and therefore protected you from the effects. The scar you bear is a symbol of the spell going wrong and irrevocably linking you to Tom. This is also why you have the ability of parseltongue."

"Actually headmaster, the parseltongue is nothing to do with Voldemort. Dumbledore frowned.

"What do you mean my boy?"

"I made friends with a snake at Severus'. He said it was because I am a magical descendant of the first snake speaker."

"Interesting. Maybe that was the power that came out of him. You see, the spell was supposed to separate your magic from your body so Voldemort could absorb it. Maybe when you were hit, a part of his magic came to you instead, the part that makes him this magical descendant. Does this support your information?"

"Yes, the snake said something about Voldemort not being a proper descendant." There was a silence for a few moments. "Where does the prophecy come in?" asked Harry.

"It is a paradox. If Voldemort had gone for another father and son, maybe Frank and Neville Longbottom, he would now be invincible and we would have no chosen one. Since he went for you, he can be killed, and in fact gave his opponent new weapons."

"Can't he just re-do the ritual?"

"No, it's a one chance sort of thing."

"But there are other ways to gain immortality aren't there?" Albus nodded his head sadly.

"Is there any hope?" asked Severus, speaking for the first time.

"Yes." Albus replied, triumphantly. "Especially with Harry's new skills."

"What do you mean headmaster?" Albus turned around and took two old leather bound books, their covers printed with faded gold letters. He opened one to a section labelled. 'Immortality.' Through this he flipped until he reached a specific spell entitled, 'exchange of magic; father-son ritual.'

"Here we are. Read that." Dumbledore said, pointing to a paragraph near the bottom. It read;

_'One who has completed this ritual cannot be destroyed by any spell, but if the stolen magic can be returned, the effects can be reversed. This is even more potent for those who have only half completed the magic exchange. To complete the magical exchange, it is necessary to have a magical relative perform the magic drawing ritual, (see 'Runes and Rituals') the closer the relative, the more chance of success.'_

"With your new abilities, I thought this would be simple." He flipped through the other book and turned it so Harry could read it once he got to the right page. Harry saw the title of the page was 'magic drawing' and beneath it was a complicated diagram with multiple circles, some over lapping, other concentric within a large outside circle. Harry looked at the picture before staring at Albus in disbelief.

"Simple. Sure. If you want to call this simple, you'll have to call Voldemort slightly misguided and the cruciatus slightly itchy."

"Harry!" reproved Severus. "Some respect to the headmaster please." Harry wordlessly pushed the tome over so he could see it. "Hell's teeth!" he yelped. "Albus, are you finally crazy? I wouldn't be surprised if even you had trouble with this! How can Harry hope to do it? Why can't you get Vector to draw the runes?"

"It's not that easy Severus. I have a bad feeling Voldemort will need something a little stronger. Tell me, what did Voldemort say before he tried to kill Harry in the memory?"

"I don't know." Severus admitted. "He was speaking parseltongue."

"It is as I feared. He invoked the ritual in parseltongue. Therefore, to undo this, the magic drawing ritual must also be invoked in parseltongue. You see my problem." Severus sighed.

"Harry, what do you think of this?" Harry shrugged.

"It's not like I've got a choice." He turned to Albus. "What shall we do first sir?" but was interrupted by Severus slamming his hands down on the table.

"Of course you have a choice! Yes, people will die, but it is the wizarding world's fault for letting it get this far. You will not be responsible." Harry looked at him sadly.

"Severus, we could debate whether it is right for the wizarding world to put their hopes all on a young child, but that won't help the situation. Yes, I have a choice, but do you think I could live with myself if I let all those people die when I could prevent it?" he saw Severus starting to speak." Severus, that's the way I am. Nothing you say can change it."

Severus closed his mouth, but was to be heard muttering about, 'Gryffindor with no sense of self preservation' and 'idiotic Potter, too noble for his own good.' Harry was smirking as he turned back to the headmaster.

"So what's the plan professor?" Dumbledore twinkled at his still muttering potion's professor.

"The runes can be drawn ahead of time. If you notice, there are certain phrases to be said at different points during the drawing and at the end. If you neglected to say the end phrase until Voldemort was standing in the appropriate circle, you might be able to pre-prepare the ritual. If this is true, it would then be necessary to somehow lure Voldemort into a trap. You would activate the magic drawing once everything was in place, trapping him in place until the ritual was complete which would allow us to incapacitate him since he would be greatly weakened." Harry nodded decisively.

"Right. Could you teach me how to draw a rune circle please professor; I've never done more than simple combinations before."

"Of course. I am perhaps not the best to teach you, though. Let us go and arrange something with Vector." The two stood up and walked out of the room.

Severus felt as though something monumental had just happened. He looked up at Fawkes who was standing on his perch. The phoenix gave the bird equivalent of a shrug and tucked his head under his wing.


	22. Chapter 22

"**Parseltongue"**

'_Spells'_

"Speech"

"**To return the stolen magic,**

**To correct the wrong performed,**

**To see the land set free,**

**To defeat the risen dark lord,**

**To release the trapped magic,**

**Is this circle's sole purpose."** Harry hissed the verse whilst drawing the inner set of runes. With a final stroke on the last symbol, he turned and looked at Albus. The old man twinkled at him and gave him a thumbs up.

Harry carefully stepped over the lines of interconnecting runes, making sure that he didn't mess up any of the glowing white chalk on the stone floor. When he was away from the design, he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Alright?" he asked.

"Perfect. Well done Harry. Now, just the simple thing of bringing Voldemort here." The headmaster said proudly.

"Yeah, simple." Harry replied dryly. At that moment Severus ran in.

"Headmaster, they're attacking Hogsmeade. All of them! Even the Dark Lord is there!" Harry and Albus shared glances.

"Looks like this is it then professor."

"And it couldn't be a better time. Run along now and get yourselves organised."

They all rushed out and parted ways, Harry going back to his room, Severus the same and the headmaster to his office. Harry hissed and Zak slithered from a pile of cloth in front of the fireplace.

"**Yess Harry? What iss it?"**

"**Voldemort is attacking. Will you help me?"**

"**Of coursse ssnake sspeaker. How can I asssisst?"**

"**Would you mind if your fangs were transfigured to inject a sleep substance instead of poison?"**

"**Not at all. How will thiss help?"**

"**Voldemort is a very skilled wizard. I'm not sure I can defeat him in a straight duel. I would appreciate it if you could bite him if you have the chance so that I can get him into the symbol circle."**

"**Of coursse ssnake sspeaker."** He coiled around Harry's arm and they went in search of professor McGonagall; Harry didn't trust his transfiguration skills enough to do something of this complexity.

He found her exiting Dumbledore's office by way of the marauders map. She frowned when he explained his request.

"It is possible Mr Potter, but I will need something to switch the current poison with. Why don't we go the hospital wing? It is closer than the dungeons and Pomfrey probably has something to temporarily knock someone out." So saying, she strode away, Harry following closely.

Poppy was rushing around, organising the hospital wing for the imminent influx of wounded, but she had time to find them a strong sleeping potion. Quickly, Minerva performed the spell, replacing the blue of the potion with the clear liquid of the poison.

"It's only temporary Harry. A long term change would mean changing your snake's whole chemistry. If it bites too many people, the poison will come through again." Harry thanked her, passed on the message and then went to find Dumbledore.

He found him at the castle entrance. They ran down to the gates and the end of the apparition ward, apparating mid-stride and landing in the midst of a battle.

"You have your portkey Harry?" Harry nodded. "Good. You know what to do. Be careful. We can't do this without you." Harry smiled seriously and turned to go.

Behind him came a crack and he was folded in a desperate embrace from Severus. Finally releasing the raven haired boy, he held him at arm's length, staring sternly into his emerald eyes.

"If you get killed, I swear to Merlin I will spend the rest of my life searching for a way to bring you back to life so I can kill you myself." Harry shuddered but promised Severus he would be careful. They were once again turning to join the fray of death eaters, dementors, giants, teachers and townspeople when the glow of portkey transportation formed in front of them.

A long rope appeared with over a hundred people attached. They all saluted Dumbledore and then plunged in, just in time to allow another portkey to take their place. A third arrived, the line even bigger than the previous two.

In the masses of people Harry saw all the order members he had ever met as well as many others he didn't know. When the last group disappeared, he saw two very familiar figures running towards him.

The bushy haired force of nature that her parents had decided to call Hermione engulfed him like a tidal wave. When he was able to breathe, he stood up and saw the grins on his two best friends' faces. He raised an eyebrow and Ron reciprocated.

"What? You didn't think we'd let you have all the fun, did you?" Harry grinned at that and then turned to Severus who was standing behind him and gave him a smirk. Severus raised an eyebrow as if to say, 'well, what are we waiting for then?' the four turned and charged at the seething mass of dark cloaked figures.

Immediately the air was filled with spells. Harry ducked and dived with all his seeker's skill to avoid the jets of light. He sent many back using parseltongue often and enjoyed the look of non-comprehension on the unmasked death eaters' faces. As any spell cast in parseltongue could only be taken off with another parseltongue spell, the hit opponents couldn't be revived.

Harry had two jobs, both interconnected. One was of course to find Voldemort and somehow subdue him. The second was to incapacitate as many of his followers as possible on the way.

There, a glimpse of the snake faced, crimson eyed dark lord on the crest of a hill. Oh yes, Voldemort was the kind to lead from behind. Harry weaved through the crowd, shooting off spells left, right and centre. Suddenly a giant loomed. Harry's stunning spells just bounced off. The giant roared and raised his boot to crush the pitiful little human. Harry darted through the monstrosities' legs and swarmed up its back, clinging on to its shoulders. He raised his wand and shot stunners at point blank range to the back of its neck. Finally it fell forward after over five spells, crushing death eaters as it went.

Harry breathed a sigh of relief. It had not been easy to keep shooting stunners with the giant's hands clawing at him and the thick skin.

He looked around again. There. Voldemort was still in the same place. He was sending a wave of… damn, dementors!

"_**my-guardian-from-fear"**_ he hissed loudly, concentrating on the warm memories of life at Prince Manor and his friends. Not one but three patroni burst from his wand; a stag, a bear-like dog and an adder. Harry stood shocked. The stag was obviously his father and the dog Sirius, but the adder? Maybe Severus. Anyway, the parseltongue obviously maximised the spell. Interesting.

The patroni ran/slithered to the oncoming wave of fear, soon joined by other silver emblems of joy. The dementors hesitated as they were attacked by the patroni, and then retreated, brushing past Voldemort as they fled. Voldemort shouted and screamed at them in anger, but was distracted by Harry's shout.

"Oy, snake-faced half-blooded bastard! Wanna fight?" Voldemort hissed wordlessly and apparated down in front of Harry.

They both inclined their heads in a mockery of a bow, and then the spells flew thick and fast. Voldemort started with his trademark _'crucio' _and Harry with '_expelliarmus_'. Harry sidestepped the curse and Voldemort blocked the charm.

After a few more spells, Harry decided to reveal his parseltongue incantations. This would also serve as a signal to tell Zak to descend and try to bite the other speaker.

"_**Be-unconscious."**_ He hissed, but his aim was off and the spell flew over Voldemort's head to hit a death eater. Voldemort's eyes widened as he realised the implications. Harry had already got off a '_rictumsempra'. _Voldemort flicked his wand hissing

"_**Stop**_**"** the spell was rebounded off the shield. Harry whitened in horror. Suddenly he was being pressured hard by parseltongue and normal spells. Like him, Voldemort was unable to hiss the Latin, but unlike Harry, he had learnt the rudiments of the language and so had a higher percentage of spells that worked.

In the middle of a spell, Voldemort stopped and glanced down. Harry followed his gaze cautiously and saw a small snake with its fangs buried in Voldemort's heel. Zak had succeeded.

Even as the dark lord's eyes unfocused ad his muscles relaxed, he managed to gasp out the killing curse. A flash of green and a new gouge was added to Harry's heart.

His eyes watered as he sent up the three green sparks that was the signal that Voldemort was subdued. He pulled out the portkey and grabbed the Dark Lord's arm saying 'freedom'. The portkey glowed and Harry felt the jerk behind his navel and the spinning of this method of travel took over.

The blurred landscape settled and they landed in Voldemort's circle of runes. Harry wearily stepped out and into his own circle. The two were separated, his in the west and Voldemort's in the east. Dead centre was surrounded by a complex rune design. Concentric circles then surrounded then in several layers, all linked by a spiral that started from the first layer and went outwards.

Harry kneeled down; the ritual required Voldemort to be conscious and so he had to wait for the potion to wear off. He wiped away the tears that fell for Zak. He hadn't known the snake very long, but he had had a great personality and had been lots of use; Harry wouldn't have succeeded without him.

A rustle of a cloak and the comforting heaviness of a hand fell on his shoulder. Harry looked up into the worried face of Severus. Funny, he had never been able to read the man, but now… after all they had been through together, he was able to see the flickers of emotion in his eyes, the corner of his mouth, the slight body language.

He nodded in answer to Severus' unspoken question. Looking further he saw Hermione, Ron and Dumbledore.

"I'm fine" they couldn't understand his nod to Severus.

"Harry, my boy…"

"I'm fine enough to get the job done." The boy said firmly. He stood up straight and Severus backed out of the circle, careful not to disturb the runes. The adrenaline had almost completely left his system and he felt an oppressive fatigue of body and magic.

Voldemort twitched. Harry drew in a breath. Voldemort opened his eyes, for a moment the brown of Tom Riddle but then replaced by crimson. He got fluidly to his feet and Harry's scar, usually contained by occlumency, now burst open with pain at the proximity of its creator. Through the red haze of pain, Harry managed to gasp out the binding words.

"**The line is unbroken, the runes completed.**

**As the circle's creator I bind you here." **

The pain was suddenly cut off as a shimmering, translucent dome winked into existence around and over Voldemort. Harry breathed a sigh of relief and wiped the blood away from his eyes. The Dark Lord on the other hand tried to pass through the barrier, but got blasted back into the centre, landing ungracefully on his back. Harry stood tall and changed the ritual phrases from the beginning.

"**To return the stolen magic,**

**To correct the wrong performed,**

**To see the land set free,**

**To defeat the risen dark lord,**

**To release the trapped magic,**

**Is this circle's sole purpose.**

**The line is unbroken, the runes completed.**

**As the circle's creator I bind you here.**

**Give it up O evil one**

**Give it up 'ere your life be done."**

Voldemort gave an unearthly shriek that pierced the eardrums of all present. Glowing golden strands emerged from his chest and spun together into a ball above his head.

Suddenly Harry's scar blazed again and he felt a tug. He realised with horror what was happening; Voldemort had opened their link and was drawing on Harry's magic. If he went down, he was going to take the boy-who-lived, his arch-nemesis with him!

Harry collapsed to the ground, the world blacking out around him. The last thing he saw was the barrier flickering and the smirk on the snake-face.

_A/N dun dun duuun! Oh this chapter was so fun to write. You should be glad. My first draft had Harry being stabbed. What will happen now? Will Harry die and Voldemort reign victorious? Will Harry succeed in taking Voldemort's magic but lose his own in the process? Will they end up actually having a happy ending after all? See the next instalment coming to an internet point near you!_


	23. Chapter 23

_AN: yes, I know this is a stereotypical view of the after life, but I didn't feel like putting my own views in the story because it just wouldn't work._

Darkness. A point of light. Bigger, bigger, it engulfed the small speck of consciousness that was the remnants of Harry Potter. Harry looked round. He was in a purple coloured tunnel. In front of him was a split; one half went down and was red with flickering lights and horrible screams. The other option went up, coloured with blue and a sense of peace. All around him were blobs of colour ranging from powder blue through various shades of purple to deep crimson, the colour, in fact, of Voldemort's eyes. Harry looked down at his own body; it was a light blue with hints of purple. He was flying although it just felt like floating.

He looked around again. The blobs were souls, he deduced. The ones with more red than blue went down, to hell he imagined, and the ones who had more blue than red went up, to heaven. When he got closer to one of the souls of pure blue he saw a newborn baby gurgling and waving its hands. Looking around, there were no pure red souls. 'Huh' he thought. 'Looks like Dumbledore was right; no one is completely evil.'

The other souls seemed to be moving much quicker than Harry. He realised he could feel a string holding him to his body that was not quite strong enough to pull him back from death to life. Impatient, Harry pulled on the insubstantial cord; he wanted to go up the blue tunnel; maybe his loved ones would be there to greet him!

As the split approached he rose and headed towards the blue side. Right above his head and covering the end of the tunnel was a shimmering, transparent barrier. Beyond that was a pleasant meadow that looked as if it stretched up to the sky. He realised that gravity had no meaning here and righted himself so he was at right angles to the meadow instead of parallel.

And there, beyond the barrier stood those he most wanted to see: James and Lily Potter, Sirius Black, Cedric Diggory and Zak. Just before he eagerly crossed the shimmering membrane, a glowing hand placed itself on his chest, stopping him. Harry tore his eyes from the waiting people and looked up. A glowing white person with a faceless mask and a naked blade that trailed fire met his stare. It was impossible to tell whether the figure was male or female, but it seemed improper to call such a being 'it'.

"Why can't I pass? All the ones I love are there already." He asked.

"It is not your time." The figure answered, her voice sounding like the ringing of a far away bell. Harry got the faint feeling that 'she' would better fit it than 'he'. "And truly, are all the ones you love here?" Harry realised she was right. He loved Ron and Hermione like siblings, Dumbledore like a fallible grandfather and Severus…like a…father? The being gestured and a ball emerged from her hands, growing until it was as large as a full length mirror. Unable to curb his curiosity, Harry looked in. He let out a gasp.

Hogwarts stood, a green dark mark twisting and turning above it. Suddenly, he was in the great hall. There were no house draperies. On all the banners the dark mark winked at the occupants. Voldemort stood on the headmaster's podium; death eaters filled the teachers' chairs. The population at the now single student table was much reduced. There were none of the muggleborns Harry had come to know, and very few half-bloods. Most of the Slytherins were there, many looking slightly uncomfortable. The rest consisted of mostly Ravenclaws with a few Hufflepuffs. Gryffindor house was represented by only one or two students; by far the smallest minority.

The picture changed. Diagon alley. No longer the light, bustling, chattering place Harry remembered. Though it was broad daylight, the streets were filled with shadows, the people creeping along, darting looks over their shoulders. As Harry watched, a young girl was shoved up against the wall and her arm was cut. A few drops of blood were directed into a vial. The contained potion smoked and turned black. The dark cloaked, white masked assailant brought his wand to bear on the child. There was a flash of green light and the girl slumped to the ground.

Harry looked on, horrified, as the picture changed once again. This picture was the worst so far. Harry was in Azkaban. Dementors stalked the isle. The view changed so that it was looking into one row of cells. Curled up in the corners of their separate prisons were Ron, Hermione, McGonagall and various others Harry recognised. They all had wounds that seeped blood, but the worst were their eyes; no longer full of life and fire, they gazed lifelessly at the walls. Even a passing dementor brought no more than a slight flinch.

Harry tore his eyes away from the scene and stared with horror at the glowing being.

"What was that?" he asked a pit of dread in his stomach; he knew the answer.

"That is what will happen if you pass the barrier between the worlds." Harry closed his eyes feeling his heart sink. The being's emotionless voice merely confirmed his suspicions.

"Why me?" a hand cupped his cheek. When she spoke again, the voice sounded slightly more sympathetic.

"You are a very powerful wizard Harry Potter-Snape. With power comes responsibility. Even the smallest being has an impact on the world. As you humans say, a butterfly flapping its wings in China causes a whirlwind in Europe. Everybody has a destiny; yours just happens to be greater. The more power they have, the greater the impact of their destiny."

"So it was always going to come to this then?"

"Destiny is not set in stone. If Tom Riddle hadn't been abandoned in the orphanage he might not have grown up to be a Dark Lord, but someone else might have taken on that role. If no one had heard the prophecy, Voldemort might not have come after your family, but someone would have had to fight against him and they might have been defeated. Ifs and buts cannot help the world now. It must be your choice that decides the fate of wizarding Britain. Do you go to your family in life, or your family in death?"

The sentinel stepped aside. Harry walked up to the barrier, but didn't touch it.

"Mum? James? Sirius? Cedric? Zak? What do you think?" Lily stepped up and pressed her hand against the thin membrane.

"Oh Harry, my heart aches for you. I want to hold you, my grown up boy, but I think you should go back. Death will wait and so will we. A few decades are nothing to eternity. I want you to be happy, and I do not believe you ever could if you knew what suffering you leave behind. And Harry, believe Severus. You are not responsible for our deaths." She indicated James and herself. "We chose our path and are happy here. Our only regret is that we left you alone. Dumbledore will have a lot to answer for when he gets up here for his behaviour over the last fifteen years!" her hair flared and eyes glowed. Now Harry could see what people meant when they talked about Lily Evans' legendary temper. She stepped back and the other half of her marriage took her place.

"Da-James." Harry stood awkwardly, his eyes downcast.

"Prongslet, you are my son. I adopted you through magic. You are as much my son as Snape's. I feel the same as your mother with one addition. Please don't become a mass murderer or something; otherwise you may end up taking the red route. Mass pranking's fine though!" his face looked so hopeful that Harry had to laugh. When he stopped, he tentatively smiled at James and got a warm grin in return. Suddenly he was shouldered aside by Sirius who had got impatient. Lily gave him a whack on the back of his head, but Sirius just grinned.

"Hey Pup. If I know you, you're beating yourself up about my death; in fact I know you are. Don't. I chose to leave the house." He sighed. "I want to hug the life out of you as soon as possible, but like Lily, I don't think you will be able to, well, live with yourself for all eternity if you come now. I say, stay alive, find yourself a nice girl and live a long and happy life, only coming here when your great-grandchildren are grown." He winked. Harry felt tears falling down his cheeks as he beamed at his dogfather. Now Cedric.

"I know I don't really belong here Harry, but I just wanted to say thanks to you for taking my body back to my folks and for doing all you did to tell the truth about my death. I'm happy here; I've met loads of ancestors. Did you know that the Diggory family are related to Helga Hufflepuff? Well, we are. She's really nice, although, not quite what I imagined her to be. None of the founders are."

"They're all there? Even Slytherin?"

"Yeah, odd isn't it? Slytherin's nothing like I expected. His image has been blackened by 'the passing of the ages'. His words, not mine. Anyway, see ya." He grinned at Harry and then sauntered off. Last of all, but not least, Zak.

"**I feel the ssame ass your brood mother and her mate. Ssee you ssoon, but not too ssoon!" **he winked and bobbed his head cheekily.

Harry smiled at them all and turned back to the sentinel.

"Have you made your choice?"

"I have."

"What is it?" Harry took a deep breath.

"I wish to go back." The being nodded and gestured. Another ball appeared. It grew like the other and then engulfed him.

Harry slammed back into his body. The glowing ball had given him a little magic, enough to keep him conscious, but he still felt utterly exhausted and unable to cast a single spell. The good news, however, was that his brief foray into death seemed to have severed the link from his scar; he no longer felt any pain and it had scabbed over.

He opened his eyes.


	24. Chapter 24

Severus watched as a dome of light appeared around the Dark Lord and prevented him from escaping. As soon as Harry had said the crafting phrases, another dome enclosed the entire structure of runes.

He gasped and ran forward as Harry collapsed, but the barrier prevented him from getting in. the ball that had emerged from Voldemort grew and the two barriers started to flicker. Severus was worried. The imminent collapse of the ritual shields meant that Harry was dying, but how?

The scar. Of course. Harry and Voldemort were irrevocably linked. Not even occlumency could stop that. The outer shield collapsed, shortly followed by the inner. Severus dropped his head and unclenched his fists, a tear running down his hooked nose. The shields could only collapse with Harry's death. The knowledge tore at his heart. After the five weeks they had spent together, the real Harry and the real Severus, he had come to regard the boy as a favourite nephew, a godson. Oh who was he trying to fool? No Harry was his son! His flesh and blood son who he had never got to know, and never would now.

The sadness dulled the shock as he watched Voldemort's approach. He was no longer afraid of death, or of death's self-appointed executioner.

Just as Voldemort was about to step across the line of runes, the barriers flared back into life. Voldemort was thrown back as Severus looked on in astonishment and hope.

The ball of magic that had disappeared with the shields now reappeared, bigger and more shining than ever. Voldemort screamed, the sound high and thin.

When the ball had grown to the size of a football, it passed out of the barrier around Voldemort and between the two. Suddenly, it exploded, the bright gold melting with everything it touched. Even Severus got some, it felt like a brush of warm comfort across the centre of his being, giving him a little energy and more hope. Voldemort collapsed and Harry swayed as the wards fell, their job done. Harry stepped towards Severus, careful to avoid the magic-full, sparking runes. Voldemort stood and raised his wand, fury written on his face. He pointed it a Harry who stood still with an indecipherable look on his face.

"Avada Kedavra." Hissed the snake-faced, now mortal.

Severus felt his heart grow cold at the fateful words. He dived in front of Harry, unwilling to lose him for a second time. When no green flash seared his eyelids, he cautiously cracked open an eye. Voldemort was staring at his wand as though it had betrayed him.

"Avada Kedavra!" nothing. At that, Voldemort lost his temper and started yelling spells that got easier and easier until he was trying first-year incantations. None produced even as much as a few sparks. A stupefy from Harry shut him up. Hermione and Ron came up to join Harry and Severus just outside the first ring of runes.

"What just happened?" asked Ron tentatively as they all stood, looking at the unconscious body of one of the world's greatest wizards.

"What just happened, Mr Weasley, was a ritual to strip Voldemort of his immortality by taking back the magic that he stole from James Potter. I would hazard a guess that Harry's rune circle took back not only the stolen magic, but also Voldemort's own magic." They turned at the voice of Dumbledore. Ron flinched at Voldemort's name, at which Hermione, Harry and Severus rolled their eyes.

"Is it over?" asked Harry, speaking for the first time since the ritual. His voice was hoarse as if it was him who had been screaming. Severus turned and enveloped Harry in a hug, ignoring the automatic flinch. After a moment, Harry relaxed into the embrace.

"Severus?" asked Albus in turn. In response, Severus rolled up his sleeve to reveal his unblemished forearm. He looked up in question at Dumbledore, still keeping one arm around Harry.

"Albus, the mark should have been there until the creator's death, no matter how much magic he has." The headmaster moved over to the former Dark Lord's side. He felt the pulse point and then cast a charm over the body.

"He is dead." All four gasped. Ron asked breathlessly;

"How? He was walking and talking fine earlier!"

"My hypothesis is that when he was reduced to a squib by the ritual, his body magic became dangerously low. When Harry cast his stunner, it overloaded the damaged core and had the same effect as the killing curse in that it completely broke up the magical core. All living beings have a magical core that is life, it is just that squibs and muggles can only access theirs in times of great stress and through a kemical called 'adrelin'(1) or something like that." Harry nodded slowly.

"So the prophecy is fulfilled, I'm free?" Albus twinkled and nodded, smiling.

Harry was suddenly engulfed by a mass of bushy brown hair. He gasped for breath and patted Hermione awkwardly on the back. Ron looked at them and grinned.

"Mad, that one." Harry grinned back. Hermione let go.

"So Harry, what are you going to do now?" Severus stepped up behind the girl.

"I have a suggestion. I was thinking, well…" Harry looked quizzically at him; it wasn't often the professor struggled for words. "We seemed to get along fairly well during those two weeks you stayed at my home. I just thought you could stay with me until you reached your majority." The words sounded stilted, but Harry knew Severus had a difficulty in expressing emotions. Albus leant in.

"He means to say, would you like him to adopt you." Harry frowned.

"But he already is my father."

"Yes, but the rest of the world doesn't know that. They think of you as Harry Potter. If we were to reveal your parentage, your mother would be dishonoured. The wizarding world holds very medieval views on blood and parentage as you know. An official adoption would stop that."

"But why?" Harry asked, confused.

"The enchantment your mother placed on you is wearing off. In a couple of months there will be no doubt as to your father. A blood adoption has the same effect." Severus nodded stiffly, then turned away.

"Stupid idea though." He said to the corpse of Voldemort. "I should never have suggested it." Harry laughed and ran forward to hug his father.

"You idiot Snape! Of course I would like you to adopt me! That's always been my greatest desire, to have a family!"

"You mean it child?" asked Severus incredulously. Harry nodded. The greasy bat of the dungeons broke into a smile, immediately looking years younger, his face folding into creases that hadn't been used in more than fifteen years. When they broke apart, Hermione gave both Harry and a startled Severus a hug, followed by a handshake from Ron.

"I'm so glad for both of you!" enthused the girl. "See Harry, you can get along with Professor Snape when you try, but I want a full explanation later!"

"Yeah, I agree with Hermione. First of all we got no owls from you barring the necessary ones for the order, then we get told by the Order that you've been captured by You-Know-Who, then that you escaped but were in a coma, and finally we only see you just before a battle for our lives. Now, as far as I can make out, your father is Snape, although how that works, I don't know. Anyway, I never thought it would be Snape, but as long as you're happy. Maybe he'll be nicer to Gryffindors now."

"Don't count on it Weasley." Growled Severus, but there was no venom in it. Harry laughed a little. It was a convoluted way of saying 'I'm glad for you' but well meaning.

"Thanks Ron."

Harry looked around at his two friends who had stood with him through thick and thin, then to his newfound father, a person he had come to know over the weeks they had spent in his house and in his mind. He smiled. His parents and Sirius would wait. Here, on earth, he had a real family at last.

_(1) You have probably guessed, 'kemical' is chemical and 'andelin' is adrenaline. You know how there are stories of a mother lifting impossible weights to get at her child. Incidentally, has anyone reading this also read 'parasite positive' by Scott Westerfield? It's a similar idea to that._

_A/N In my original version, I was just going to leave it there, but I got a couple of reviews asking for revenge on Dumbledore and the Dursleys, so I wrote an epilogue. You should all be glad. My original plan had Harry dying to defeat Voldemort. Oh well, I'll have to keep that for another story. Yeah, you might have noticed, I kind of forgot about Hermione and Ron before the last chapter. My original plan involved Draco Malfoy, but he didn't turn up for the auditions, so his part was cut._

_Anyway, I hope the characters didn't change too suddenly, I hope you enjoyed it and I apologise for the long gaps between chapters. Still, at least it was never abandoned completely._

_Please review, I would like to hear your opinions. My epilogue is written, but if you have any good ideas about what revenge the Dursleys and Dumbledore get, I may be able to incorporate them._

_Thank you very much to all those who have consistently being reviewing; they really __lifted my spirits and made me feel that this wasn't complete rubbish._


	25. Epilogue

**_Snape announces intention to adopt Potter!_**

_In a move that has turned the wizarding world's expectations on their heads, Severus Snape has applied to adopt Harry Potter, defeater-of-He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named-for-the-second-time. This has shocked all but Harry's closest friends. Everyone knows or knew how much animosity there was between the pair for the five years Harry Potter has been at school._

"Snape couldn't even be in the same room without making a snide remark about Harry." _Says Dean Thomas, long-time dorm mate of Harry Potter._

"Potter hated Severus. He went purposely out of his way to annoy the man, although, I must admit that most of the attacks were provoked." _states Minerva McGonagall, transfiguration teacher and head of Gryffindor. These comments show plain hate. Could Harry be being forced?_

_However, Hermione Granger, long time best friend of our hero tells a different story._

"Severus saved Harry's life and had to put him up for a few weeks due to the circumstances. They discovered a new side to each other and then kept saving each other's lives after that. They worked tirelessly together to bring down V… and found in each other what they needed. I was there when Severus 'popped the question' as it were, and it was beautiful to behold. There was no coercion or force involved, just two people who needed what the other could provide."

_The adoption will take place this weekend. Stay tuned for a special issue of the 'Daily Prophet'._

_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX_

**_Man-Who-Defeated-You-Know-Who changes name!_**

_Harry Potter will now be known as Harry Snape. This morning, Severus Sebastian Snape, youngest potion master in over three centuries and main inventor of the wolfbane potion and the anti-cruciatus relief potion, adopted Harry Potter, not just legally, but also by blood. Harry Snape will now carry features of his chosen father which will slowly override the ones of James Potter. In response to our earlier article, our saviour sent in a statement._

_"_Severus Snape has now been revealed as the spy for the light he always was. The life of a spy is precarious, especially when spying on a paranoid, half-crazy Dark Lord. All the death-eaters knew Voldemort wasn't completely dead; the marks on their fore-arms weren't gone, merely faded. Severus had to keep his cover just in case Voldemort ever returned to corporal form. He couldn't be chummy with me, or not favour the Slytherins, especially the children of death-eaters; otherwise he would lose contact with the dark servants who stayed out of Azkaban.

Over the summer I spent two weeks in Severus' house to learn some valuable duelling skills from my father, who happens to be a champion duellist as well. He never entered any competitions, but wins as much as he loses in friendly fights with Professor Flitwick, five times world champion. I think, no, I know that it was the skills I learnt that summer that allowed me to defeat Voldemort.

He helped me through many of the issues I have needed to deal with and we were able to get past our differences. I have come to respect and admire the true Severus Snape. I could not ask for a better father."

_There we have it dear readers. The exact words written by our saviour. We asked to take out the name of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named but Harry Snape demanded that we print it as is. His words were to the effect of 'he is dead and cannot hurt you any more.' We can only hope that Mr Snape's reasons are pure and that he will not be a bad influence on our Harry Potter._

"You don't have to do this Harry." Severus said with concern in his voice. Harry was beside him, hard eyed and tense as he looked at the white door with a number 4 on the front.

"Yes, I do. If I don't Vernon will always be hanging over my head." He started forwards and knocked on the door. I opened to reveal Petunia Dursley whose eyes widened as she recognised the visitors. Harry put his boot in the door as she slammed it shut. He pushed it open out of her nervously trembling fingers and stepped inside, Severus following. Petunia backed away towards the living room where the rest of her family were. Vernon looked up as she entered and then stood up hurriedly.

"Boy! What are you doing back here?" he took a step back as he saw Severus. "And you, why are you here?"

"To avenge Harry." Severus replied in his most chilling voice. With that, he raised his wand and whispered **'father's revenge'**, pointing his wand at each of the Dursleys in turn.

Vernon was the first to react. He howled as he felt stripes erupting on his back as though left there by his belt. Petunia was next. She heard words like 'worthless', 'freak', 'monster', 'unlovable' bombard her ears and the gnawing pains of hunger grip her stomach. Dudley too cried as he felt a punch in his eye, a kick in his ribs, a shove between his shoulders. Harry walked and stood, looking at them.

"You will feel as I felt, weep as a I wept, starve as I starved until you realise that your behaviour was wrong and feel regret, not just because you now suffer the same, but because I was a child whose innocence was shattered. I already know that. My father has shown me your monstrosity in its true light." With that he turned and swept away, copying Severus' trademark. At the door way he was stopped by Vernon's hateful voice.

"You have no father! You are a worthless, orphaned whelp that no one wants and that we should have abandoned in an alley way or drowned." Harry turned and smiled a cold, frightening smile.

"Actually, dear Dursley, I have a father. Severus adopted me a few days ago and don't they say that a chosen child is sometimes more dear than one that is foisted upon you by an accidental pregnancy." With that he turned and disappeared from sight with his father whilst Vernon was left speechless.

The next stop was the headmaster's office. The gargoyle let them in and they sat down in front of Dumbledore's desk.

"What can I do for you my boys?" the ever present twinkle faded as he saw the seriousness in their faces.

"We want answers." Severus was the spokes person. Albus nodded hesitantly.

"First, why did you leave Harry with Petunia when you knew he had a living father? Second, why did you never check up on him? Neither of his parents were particularly short, so did it not ring any alarm bells when he turned up to Hogwarts the shortest in the year? Third, did you know about the abuse, and would you have done anything about it if you had? We have held our questions and anger at bay because we did not wish to divide the light, but we want straight and true answers now." Harry nodded his eyes unusually cold. Albus bowed his head.

"I know I failed both of you and I am sorry. I put Harry with the Dursleys because as long as he was with his mother's blood relatives, Lily's sacrifice would continue to protect him. I didn't tell you, Severus, because I knew that for one thing, to keep your cover up, you could not look after Voldemort's defeater, and for another, you would never have left your son in the care of another if you knew.

No, I did not know of the abuse. I didn't check on him because I thought too much attention would draw death eater eyes there and I believed he was safe." He saw their disbelieving faces. "Alright, I knew Petunia wasn't fond of her sister and I didn't want pity to overcome my decision because to my mind, it was the safest place for you. Yes, if I had known that Petunia's jealousy extended to allowing her husband to brutalise a small child, I would have taken you from them immediately, wards be damned!" the uncustomary swearing shocked the listeners. "I am terribly sorry for the suffering you went through Harry, but I am also very proud of how you turned out despite the odds." Severus and Harry looked at each other and then back at Dumbledore.

"We understand you tried to do the best for the greater part, but you have to realise that all decisions have consequences, and the consequence of these decisions is that our relationship is damaged. If you wish to start to mend it, you will need to do penance." Albus bowed his head solemnly.

"Yes Severus, and I will accept any sanction you choose to place, barring my life or magic." The two withdrew to have a discussion. Albus caught snippets.

"What about… too harsh. We could... that's letting him off…he'd enjoy that…ok, what about this..." finally they looked up seriously.

"We have decided that for two months, you must wear only black, eat no sweets and experience Harry's memories at night with the sensation revealing charm. In addition, you must swear an oath that you will remain within your bounds as headmaster and head of the Wizgamot no matter the student." Albus agreed solemnly. He was sure he had Harry to thank for the leniency of the sentence. He had always had a good heart. Severus was far more vindictive. Although, no lemon drops…that was truly devious.

He swore the oath and then shook hands with the two men before they exited leaving one old man dressed in sober black with his phoenix laughing at him.

**_The End_**


End file.
